Flyers Have Second Straight Horrendous Weekend

Last weekend we got smoked 6-4 by the New Jersey Devils, and 5-2 by the New York Rangers. In both games the Flyers were completely embarrassed. That became known as the Lost Weekend. These last two days weren’t any better. Once again, the Rangers beat up on us 5-2. We followed that up by losing a tight one 4-3 to the Red Wings. All of that sums up to a big fat 0 points in 4 games against good teams. I’m not happy about that right now.

Sure, we’re still sitting in 4th place in the East. We’re just a close to 1st place as we are to 9th place. We’re 8 points from the top, and 8 points from falling out of the playoffs. What happened to this team? We started out so surprisingly well, and now we’ve stalled. Teams have plenty of up’s and down’s during a season. Are we simply having a down time, or has the league finally figured us out? Going into this season, we expected our strength to be defense and goaltending. When we started lighting up the scoreboard, we thought that was a nice bonus.  However, we haven’t managed to keep the puck out of our net at all. And lately, our offense hasn’t been able to get us over the hump enough.

Just this weekend, we gave up 5 powerplay goals. That’s is utterly pathetic. Both games were lost this weekend in the third period. We were tied with the Rags at two going into the third. We were knotted at three with Detroit. Both of them found a way to beat us. What’s up with us not being to able to score in the clutch? So many things that were going well for us for most of the season simply aren’t there anymore.

I’m not feeling great about this team right now.  I just don’t see them fixing all of their mistakes. There’s too much wrong with this defense for them to simply figure it out quickly. The turn the puck over too much, they easily get caught out of position, and they give up too many shots from the slot. Of course everyone wants a trade for either Ryan Suter or Shea Weber from Nashville. I’m definitely on board with that, but I don’t think it will be enough. All of our defensemen are having a fairly crappy season, far below what I expected of them.  It wasn’t any better early on when Pronger was healthy. When he was here, we gave up 2.62 goals against. It’s much better than where we stand now with 2.93, but it’s still not that good.

So I don’t know where we go from here. A few guys have mentioned lately that the effort level isn’t where it should be. Sounds a little like last year doesn’t it? I though that was all Mike Richards’ and Jeff Carter’s fault that this team didn’t have the right attitude. They’re gone, and the problems remain. So much for that theory I guess. This team needs something to change to get them back on a winning track. I’m not sure what it is, but I hope they figure it out soon.

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