PHILADELPHIA – To be quite honest, the Flyers are lucky they’re 3-4-1.
Seven of their eight games have seen the opposition score first. That means they have trailed in all but one game this year. That one game? A win.
The Flyers have built up a “never-quit” attitude, but that isn’t the recipe for success nor is it sustainable. At some point, it takes its mental toll.
Their 5-4 loss to Arizona on Thursday serves as an example of that.
Down 2-0 in the first period to a team that had lost five games in a row, the Flyers clawed back, evened the score, but then watched the scoreboard go the other way in the third period before a goal with seconds left cut the deficit to one.
This was the second straight game they fell behind big to an inferior team, going down 3-0 to Buffalo previously.
“It’s obviously a worrisome trend,” said Andrew MacDonald. “You don’t want to be one of those teams who fall behind early on a consistent basis. It’s something that we have to continue to be aware of and really turn it around.”
Right now, the Flyers are one of those teams.
The team is well aware of this problem, too. They just are left searching for answers. Steve Mason didn’t mince words.
“We say that over and over again and I wish I had an explanation that’s why it keeps happening,” Mason said. “It’s not the way a hockey team should play in order to win hockey games and tonight we paid for it, and we should have paid for it against Buffalo, as well.”
While this run of slow starts and falling behind have cast a black eye on the first two weeks, the Flyers are only eight games into an 82-game season. There’s no need to hit the panic button, yet.
Of course, if this continues through another week of games, the Flyers could soon find themselves right where they don’t want to be, a familiar place they spent much of last season: playing catch up.
“We don’t want to be behind the eight ball again starting the season,” said Brayden Schenn. “We keep talking about it, but until we start doing something about it, nothing is going to change.”
Kyle Phillippi covers the Flyers for Flyzette, as well as for BroadStreetHockey.com, CSNPhilly.com and Metro Philly. You can follow Kyle on Twitter, @Kyle_Phillippi.
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