Team defense.
Confidence in one another.
Puck support.
Cutting down penalties.
When a team goes through a stretch of horrific games like the Flyers have, to lose any one of those things from it's overall game plan can cause problems.
But to lose ALL of those aspects of their team play can bring about disaster which is why the Flyers have gone from 2nd in the Metro Division to 4th and from 5th overall in the Eastern Conference to 9th and out of the playoffs during their current 4-game losing skid.
That the Flyers continue to reel off penalty after penalty after penalty is mind boggling and BTW: Zac Rinaldo is not in the lineup and neither was Steve Downie on Saturday.
The saving grace, if you want to call it that, is that aside from the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Metro is do weak, the Flyers remain tied with Columbus in points and the Blue Jackets hold a playoff position.
Saturday's Boston Massacre was eye-opening in that it shows you how much separation there is between the Bruins and Flyers from a talent perspective.
At the same time, I legitimately feel that if the Flyers had played the Bruins a month ago when they were going through a 9-2 stretch, they would have given them a competitive game.
Kimmo Timonen was beside himself with anger after Saturday's loss.
"It’s all about what they did, and they were so much better in every area than we were," he said. "So it’s not the breakouts, it’s the skating they did to us.
"That’s the team that went to the Stanley Cup, won the Stanley Cup, played in the Stanley Cup Final. You can blame the defense – a lot of guys blame defense – it’s old, slow. [It’s a] skating game, and we got beat by the team who skated way more than we did.
“Too many penalties, but that’s not the issue here. We’ve got to get better as a team. I keep referring to that team [Boston], because they played as a team, and that happens.
"We haven’t played as a team the last three, four games. We’ve got to get back to that. Everything starts [with] skating. It’s a skating game nowadays. It’s not like you can hang on to the puck, you’ve got to skate. We got out-skated by a mile today.”
I would counter that while the Flyer forwards are capable of skating with most teams in the NHL their defense simply is unable to do that with far too many clubs.
Defense should be the Flyers priority at the trade deadline, if not sooner. They need to get quicker back there. They need to get someone who can amp it up on the breakout and not panic with the puck.
Flyers coach Craig Berube bluntly admitted his team seems so unsure of itself right now, no one wants to handle the puck. No confidence. And no support from others around the puck in the defensive zone and during breakouts.
It has to change. The Flyers could very easily lose all three games in the next two weeks on the West Coast.
“If that loss doesn’t open eyes…you don’t even have to look at the standings,” Kimmo Timonen said. “We have to look at that game and what happened.
“That’s one of the top teams in the league, and they showed that to us. So if that’s not a wake-up call for us, you’re not supposed to be on this team.”
For all its faults, this team is capable of making the playoffs. How far it goes is another matter, but getting there should not be an issue.
“You play all year to get in the playoffs,” Scott Hartnell said. “Right now, we don’t deserve to be in the playoffs, the way we’ve been playing the last 3 to 4 games and if we match up against Boston and play like that, we’re four-and-out again if it’s a playoff match.
“Guys need to get themselves ready. Guys need to be ready to work harder, ready to battle. It seems like we’re just going to try to cruise through games and win them and that’s losing hockey for sure.”
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