Flyers Are Hitting the Wall at the Wrong Time

There are the optimist and pessimist points of view when it comes to losing streaks. Either it’s a bump in the road, and the team will improve in the long run, or it’s a sign that things are about to go from bad to worse. The latter option feels like the accurate description for the Philadelphia Flyers, who have lost five in a row.

The Flyers played above their weight all season and looked ahead of schedule under Rick Tocchet. The losing streak and slide in the standings are pulling back the curtain the way that dog in The Wizard of Oz did. It’s revealing a team that opponents don’t fear and has multiple issues, all of which have been exposed lately.

Dan Vladar was the Duct Tape

One argument that was thrown out there early in the season is that the Flyers are the same team as last season’s group but with the Dan Vladar addition. That’s not the case, yet it’s hard to ignore his value when he’s not in the lineup. The Flyers leaned on Vladar, and he carried them with elite play in the net.

He left the Jan. 14 game against the Buffalo Sabres with an injury. The Flyers lost that game 5-2 and lost the next night 6-3. The last two games showed that they don’t have an answer to hold down the fort in his absence, with both Samuel Ersson and Aleksei Kolosov struggling. The Flyers built their defense around Vladar and worked around his strengths. Now that he’s out, the defense and the team overall are out of sync. It explains how they’ve allowed 24 goals in the five-game skid.

The reports are that the injury isn’t as serious as initially thought. For the Flyers, they must wonder if he’ll be ready for the Olympics and if he’ll join the Czechia team or not (they’ll hope not, considering the risks). Vladar will return but the subsequent question is whether he’ll be back at a high level and fully recovered from it. The Flyers didn’t realize the value he brought to the team, and now that he’s out, they see the drop.

The Offense Has Fallen With Zegras

There are always a few teams that have a dry January, specifically, where the offense dries up. The Flyers have only scored nine goals in the last five games. There were bright spots in the latest game where they scored three goals with Matvei Michkov finding one but the offense hasn’t looked the same.

Some of that is because of Jamie Drysdale, who was out of the lineup and left the team without a puck-handling presence at the blue line. A big factor is the slump Trevor Zegras is in. He’s been the best forward all season and only has one goal in the last five games.

The offense doesn’t run through Zegras. However, the best players must be the best players. Zegras is going through a rough patch, and the rest of the forward unit isn’t built to pick up the slack. It’s where the Flyers run into issues since they need the veterans to deliver in these stretches, and they haven’t.

Flyers Miscues Amplify Issues

The loss against the Sabres was a display of the Flyers outplaying their opponent and still losing because of mistakes. They took momentum-killing penalties, penalties that resulted in goals, and made mistakes in the defensive zone that burned them. Even worse, some of these errors were coming from the veterans who are meant to set the tone of the rest of the team.

The Flyers playing careless hockey isn’t a problem per se. It becomes one when the power play and the penalty kill are weak links. Great teams take advantage of the other team’s mistakes and, similarly, don’t allow mistakes to cost them. The Flyers are not that team, certainly not in their latest stretch.

Is a Youth Movement or Trade Needed?

Stretches like these can leave a team wondering what must happen to snap out of the skid. Sometimes, it’s a big win that brings back the confidence. Other times, it’s a shake-up, even if it’s a healthy scratch. The Flyers won’t do anything drastic, even as the losses pile up and they are left on the outside of the playoff picture.

It’s not a good idea to go shopping when you are hungry (I should know), and the Flyers are hungry for improvements. It’s why general manager (GM) Daniel Briere will presumably wait things out. He won’t make a big trade one way or another and won’t bring up a few prospects to send a message to the team.

There is a chance, however, that Tocchet sends the message. Either someone will get the surprise scratch for the upcoming game, or Tocchet will lean on a different line more than usual. The Flyers saw the Michkov, Sean Couturier, and Denver Barkey line click in the latest game, so it could be the line that turns things around. The game against the New York Rangers is a good time to start since, like the Flyers, they’ve lost five games in a row and look like a mess.