The Philadelphia Flyers are an absolute mess, losing their seventh straight game to open the season, a franchise record 0-5-2 start that has the fanbase completely boiling over. On Sunday night, the Carolina Hurricanes just walked all over them, beating them 4-1. It wasn’t just a loss, it felt like a full-on beatdown, with Carolina’s Jordan Martinook even taking two shots to Tyson Foerster’s face in a scoreless game with no penalty called. The Hurricanes then scored moments later. That’s the kind of luck, or lack thereof, this team is dealing with right now.
“Fire Tocchet!” Chants Tell You Everything
You know it’s bad when your own fans are turning on you this early, but after another anemic loss, pockets of the crowd were straight up chanting “Fire Tocchet! Fire Tocchet!” The rest of the fans? They just booed the team off the ice. Coach Rick Tocchet himself admitted, “I think we go off the rails at certain points of the game. I don’t know if it’s experience, pressure, I don’t know.” That quote doesn’t exactly inspire confidence, does it? The Flyers got absolutely crushed 7-0 by Pittsburgh on opening night and they’ve been outscored 28-8 this season. It’s the worst start in franchise history, eclipsing their previous record of six straight winless games from 1999-00 and 2008-09. Both of those teams actually managed to claw their way back to the playoffs, but this year feels different, especially after Anaheim matched their five-year, $90 million offer sheet for Leo Carlsson. Even their general manager, who told reporters “it’s not the time to panic because of a bad stretch,” has got to be sweating now.
No Goals for Zegras and a Collapsing Season
This isn’t a fresh problem either. The Flyers have dropped 13 of their last 14 games since taking a 3-0 series lead in the opening round of the playoffs against Pittsburgh last season. That includes a brutal 4-0 sweep in the second round, again to the Hurricanes. Carolina’s social media team even rubbed salt in the wound after Sunday’s game with a post saying, “We’ve won more games in Philly in the last nine days than the Flyers, Eagles, and Phillies combined this month.” Ouch. Adding to the misery, they’re playing without key guys like forward Travis Konecny and defensemen Cam York and Rasmus Ristolainen due to injuries. But even if those guys were healthy, captain Sean Couturier admitted, “We can’t skill our way out of this one. We have a lot of talent, but we can’t skill ourselves out of it. We’re going to have to work and grind and it starts the next practice. We better figure it out.” A huge part of the problem is Trevor Zegras. After signing a four-year, $36.5 million extension following a career-high 26 goals and 67 points last season, he’s been perhaps the biggest disappointment this year with just two points and zero goals. That’s just brutal.
Sean Couturier is right, there’s no quitting. But if the Flyers don’t figure this out soon, they’ll be chasing a playoff spot for the entire season and it’ll be too late before they know it. It all starts with that next practice.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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