No matter which direction you look at the Flyers' just-completed, 12-day, 6-game road trip through North America, this wasn't good.
2-3-1 doesn't cut it for a team that appeared to have turned the corner, was in contention to grab a playoff spot - third in the Metro Division _ and hang onto i.
Instead, the Flyers returned home after a 7-2 pounding by the Chicago Blackhawks who are light years better than them though I don't believe they are 5 goals better than them a game.
Tonight it's Montreal with the Flyers 3 points behind in the playoff chase and the pattern is they can see the light just ahead over the hill but the climb up the hill is a helluva lot longer and harder than imagined.
And they may not make it, either.
“Nobody is satisfied with it,” coach Craig Berube said. “I’m certainly not. I don’t think my players are, either. We could have done a lot better and I am sure they think so, too.”
They lost the final three games on the trip to Dallas, Ottawa and CHicago and the only acceptable loss up-front from the beginning for me, would have been the Hawks. I gave them no shot to win that game.
They should have won the other two.
Alarming coming out of this trip is the plus/minus of a number of core Flyers from the first, and third shutdown line, plus the defense:
Claude Giroux (-6), Jakub Voracek (-6), Scott Hartnell(-5); Sean Couturier (-5), Matt Read (-6), Steve Downie (-5); Nick Grossmann (-6), Mark Streit (-5). To Grossmann's credit, most of those minuses are all Striet's fault. He was simply brutal on the trip with turnovers and mistakes that led to goals against.
The Flyers got their asses kicked by a defending Stanley Cup champ and should be smarting from it and want some revenge tonight.
“They out-everything us,” Scott Hartnell said. “They had the puck more than us. They made more plays than us. They forechecked harder than us. They took less penalties [8 vs. 10] than us.
“For us being here waiting for them, we let them off the hook. They have a lot of players who can skate and make plays. At times, it looked like they were playing against kids out there.”
It's back on the road Sunday at Washington and it's time for this team to get off the fence, one way or another.
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