All of the goodwill from the Flyers' three-game winning streak has disappeared after they dropped their third straight game. They've lost 12 of their first 15 games, and the questions about who's to blame are only getting louder.
The word compete has been thrown around more times than anyone can count, and the Flyers still don't have an answer for it. Many of these same players have heard that message from multiple head coaches, and it still hasn't stuck.
So why are the Flyers, who are over a month into the season, unable to figure out what's going on? The same group that fought for each other and consistently talked about the closeness of the locker room is now turning to the media to air its frustrations.
"At times this year we're, you know, soft. I would say not hard on battles, and we lose battles easily. It's one thing to make mistakes and not win a battle. If you're in there trying hard and stuff, then it's different," Sean Couturier said after the loss to the Capitals.
In hockey, "soft" is the worst thing you can call a player. It's worse than saying you have no talent. It means you won't sacrifice yourself for the team. It's a shot at someone's character, and players rarely say it about their own team. So when the captain uses it to describe his locker room, it's more than just venting. It's sending a clear message to his teammates.
And Couturier wasn't the only one to drop a bomb like that about the team's lack of effort. Nick Seeler has embodied what it means to play in Philadelphia. He is one of the most selfless players and will do whatever it takes to help his team out.
Seeler's take on what the problem is goes back to something the organization thought it had fixed. As PHLY's Charlie O'Connor noted, this was supposed to have been solved under John Tortorella.
"Well, we’ve certainly had some discussions in the room. I mean, it’s just focus levels and compete levels and playing for the crest. That’s what it’s all about. It’s not about getting points. It’s not about ‘me, me, me.’ It’s about the team, and playing for each other and sacrificing for each other," Seeler said. "It’s really not that difficult to understand. You play for the guy next to you. That’s what Flyers hockey is all about. And when we can start figuring that out at the start, puck drop, we will be a better hockey team."
Those last few sentences speak volumes. This team has preached that their culture is in a much better place. When one of the team's most selfless players has to remind everyone who they're playing for, you have a much bigger problem on your hands.
Some fans will say that firing Rick Tocchet is the best place to start, and plenty have already pointed to Vancouver as the obvious comparison.
In Tocchet's first full season with the Canucks, they won 50 games and finished atop the Pacific. Then something flipped the following season. The team struggled on the ice, but its most notable issues were off it, highlighted by the very public rift between J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson. There may not be an obvious player-versus-player feud in Philadelphia, but the signs of a fractured room are starting to look familiar.
But then what? Is firing Tocchet going to fix what's now looking like another culture crisis? Sure, it could be part of it, but the Flyers can only keep going through so many head coaches before needing to address the elephant in the room.
The scary part is that there isn't an easy fix for this. The problem was supposedly fixed before, but it hasn't gone away. The Flyers tried to address players who didn't fit the team's culture once before. But it's looking like that wasn't enough.
If the Flyers can't turn it around, things will only get louder.
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