PREVIEW 8 AM EST

The Flyers (40-19-6) will look to stop the bleeding from their four-game losing streak and overall subpar play since the All-Star break tonight when they take on the improving young Edmonton Oilers (23-35-8) at the Wells Fargo Center. Once again, the Flyers had better come out ready to work for three periods against a team that may not have a good record but which has played better hockey than Philly of late.

Despite losing rookie star Taylor Hall (22 G) and defenseman Ryan Whitney (+13) injury, the Oilers have won 7 of their last 10 games. They are coming off a convincing 5-1 win over the dispirited Colorado Avalanche, and have moved out of the NHL cellar record-wise. Edmonton has speed to burn, several other dynamic young talents beyond Hall, and no real pressure on them the rest of this season.

Beyond their current stretch of generally strong play, Edmonton has lost a lot of one-goal games over the course of this season. The biggest problem has been their inability to kill penalties (a less-than-mediocre 77 percent success rate) and their inability to make it up on the power play (13.7 percent efficiency). They are also prone to making some low-percentage plays than turn into odd-man rushes. These are areas the Flyers had better exploit if they are to get back on the winning track.

From a Flyers' standpoint, hopefully the day off yesterday gave everyone a chance to clear their heads and get refocused. Even if they win tonight -- and that's not a given -- the club has a lot of work to do to clean up the myriad areas of their game where they have fallen off track in the last couple months.


*****

Last night, I stayed up late to watch the Stars-Kings game from LA on NHL Center Ice. I saw a Dallas club that had no business winning the hockey game find a way to steal two points. I will save the details for the Stars blog, but wanted to point out here that the game marked the ninth time this season that Dallas has come back to win a game it trailed after two periods. The Flyers have only done it once this season.

The Flyers could learn a thing or two by seeing how the Stars dug deep last night despite pretty long odds against winning when trailing all night at the tail end of a three-game-in-four-night, four-game-in-six night stretch. It was obvious from their play at times that Dallas was fatigued, yet they played through it and scratched out an OT win. Novel concept.

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