How can the Flyers play so well, so dominantly one night on Broadway, then come out flat the next at the Wachovia Center and simply not show up for two periods?

“You wonder what causes that day to day,” answered Mike Knuble. “Are we tired. Sure, a little bit. That is no excuse. Back to back games? That excuse does not apply. Are we mentally tired? I don’t know?

“Or are we resorting to old ways to and reverting to easy ways to play? Sometimes, you have to dumb it down if they are standing four across and chip it in. You go get it.”

That was a terrible effort at home for 40 minutes by the Flyers until the third period when coach Ken Hitchcock mixed up his lines, starting with the top line. He moved Peter Forsberg between Geoff Sanderson and Sami Kapanen to set an example.

“If that is gonna be the case, then Simon, Peter and I have to realize that,” Knuble said. “We have to make a conscious effort to make sure we are leading the face of the play. Other lines do pick up on it.”

Forsberg’s reaction?

“We are the first line and we have to come out and play the way we should play every night,” he said. “We need to be physical and go out and lead the way …”

They didn’t lead on the opening shift of the game, getting beat on the wall several times and giving up a goal in less a minute.

“I can’t look at anybody else,” Forsberg said. “I’m not playing as well as I want and I’m not leading the way …”

I just don’t get it.

Flyers general manager Bob Clarke tore up his roster last summer and remade a third of this club. Yet the general malaise that crept up so often last season with good effort-bad effort still occurs.

This was the first back-to-back of the season. There is simply no reason why the determination to build on the past two games against the Rangers wasn’t there. Those of us sitting in the press box remarked we were witnessing a little de ja vu from last year … and the year before.

“We didn’t play the way we had to play to beat this team,” Hitchcock replied when I asked at the post-game news conference whether it took his team two periods to find energy and get their feet moving.

“They allowed us to stay in the perimeter so that’s where we played. It’s what we have to do to win. It’s recognizing the opponent, recognizing the game, going out and doing it. We had to dig in and make it a deep game and make plays in front of them.

“We had to try to convince a lot of people to try and dig in and we had to put [the puck] in and [go back and get it]. We really had to grind in their zone to create scoring chances and in order to do that, you have to give the puck up and get it back. You have to dump it in.”

This team has enough size that it should be able to play the bump ‘n grind. It didn’t until the third period.

And the Flyers still had a chance to win despite their overall poor play if only their power play was up to snuff.

Ohhhh-for-8. They are no 3-for-32 for the season (not 3 for 33 as I wrote earlier • dispute on score sheets, my bad).

Some of you have ripped me for getting on the PP so early … but in a one-goal game • which it was until the final seconds _ the PP has to make a difference. The irony here is that a year ago, the PP was very sound and the penalty killing was the Flyers undoing.

Will this team ever have both going simultaneously?

“Our percentage [on the power play] is not where it should be,” Knuble told me on his stationary bike while sweat dripped on my notepad. “That is probably the difference in the game if you one goal. Every night it is not going to be there, but what’s our trend now?

“O for 10 the first night? What’s it now? It’s not good. It’s just the opposite of last year when the penalty killing was the issue and the power play was fine. Now the power play is hurting us. This was a game where we needed that one break and the power play could have saved us.”

Today is a “total off day” in Flyerdom. That means, no ice, no meetings, only injured players report.

Everyone else is expected to stay home and contemplate what the coach had to say after the game.

Hitch wasn’t happy when he met with the media. That’s usually a telltale sign he gave them a tongue lashing.

The players were very s • l • o • w to meet with the media. That’s another sign they got paddled.

***

Great blog by Anthony SanFilippo on Alexei Kovalev and his flying ... good scoop, Boy Genius!

***

Devils on Saturday in the Swamplands. Oops! Am I going to offend every person in North Jersey by calling East Rutherford … the Swamplands?

My Canadian brethren … Les Miserables … They make the Flyers’ life miserable on home ice. Lighten up. Grab a Molson. Grab one for me, too. Molson Light, actually.

And grab one for my buddy Bruce Garrioch, too. He needs one in Ottawa right now.

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