Things were looking up for the Flyers, with 3 consecutive wins in strong performances. After an extended break, the Flyers lost all that momentum and came away empty handed against the Blue Jackets and Canadiens over the weekend.
Those two teams represented the opposite ends of the spectrum, as the Canadiens are first overall, and the Blue Jackets last. The result was the same against both however. I thought the performance against the Blue Jackets performance was sloppy, while the Canadiens game mainly got away from the Flyers despite some battling.
The real takeaway from both games is that the Flyers yielded 3 PP goals against in each. You won't win many games giving up 3 PP goals, regardless of who you're playing. The Flyers' penalty kill is now ranked 29th, and they've been shorthanded more often recently.
It's too early in the season to be scoreboard watching and checking the standings. The Flyers really should just be concerned about getting the point they can by themselves, but these penalty killing problems must be addressed ASAP or they will continue to drop points.
Notes
-Brayden Schenn's stock is rising recently. He's on a 5 game point streak, scoring 7 points in those games. When he was moved to the Read-Couturier line, that line looked much more perky offensively, and when he slid in with Giroux and Voracek against Montreal he scored twice. He now has 13 points in 16 games overall.
-The Umberger-Lecavalier line has looked pretty hopeless. Clearly the Flyers worst line IMO. Umberger has remained invisible, and while Lecavalier has been getting PP time, he hasn't been very effective. Against Montreal, he was extremely trigger happy and attempted 12 shots, but only one of those even found its way to Price.
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