Road play could be Flyers’ big playoff obstacle

Holiday road trips have been somewhat of a tradition for the Flyers, and this season is no exception. The Flyers just returned from an eight-game road jaunt over the past two-plus weeks, which has seen excitement matched up with intense disappointment.

The team returns to the City of Brotherly Love with a 3-4-1 record over the trip. Here's how they've fared on their trips, dating back to the 2005-06 post-lockout campaign:

2013-14: six games, 5-1-0
2012-13: no trip
2011-12: five games, 2-2-1
2010-11: five games, 3-2-0
2009-10: five games, 3-1-1
2008-09: six games, 2-2-2
2007-08: six games, 5-1-0
2006-07: eight games, 3-5-0
2005-06: 10 games, 7-2-1

As you can see, the Flyers finished with a losing record over their holiday trip just once in that span, during their 2006-07 last-place season (technically twice, if you integrate overtime losses with regulation losses). They've finished with winning records five times, while evenly tying once.

Subsequently, the team's record as the visitor this season sits at a low 6-13-4. Only Los Angeles (five), Carolina (four), Buffalo (four) and Edmonton (two) have fewer wins on the road.

What does this recent road trip mean for the Flyers' playoff hopes?

This week, the team will play its 41st game, and thus, the season will be halfway complete — hard to believe, right? The Flyers currently sit at sixth place in the Metropolitan Division, with 35 points and a 14-18-7 record. Their 35 points are 12 behind Washington for the Metro's third playoff spot, and 10 points behind Toronto for the Eastern Conference's second wild card spot.

Clearly, a second-consecutive playoff appearance for the Orange and Black is going to come at a premium. According to the wizards at Hockey-Reference, their shot at making the playoffs stands at 3 percent, with a 2.3 percent shot at earning the wild card berth. It almost seems like their playoff chances are entering Jim Mora territory, but let's not get overly drastic and cliche here.

Sure, anything can happen in the second half of the season. The Flyers showed plenty of resilience in the second half of last season, and the personnel are largely similar to last year's team (subsitute Scott Hartnell and Andrej Meszaros for R.J. Umberger and Andrew MacDonald, while adding Gord Murphy to the coaching staff). After all, they did set a franchise record for most third-period comebacks — many of which came in the second half — because of that resilience.

But as history has shown time and time again, you can't win in the playoffs if you can't win on the road (believe it or not, of the 18 Stanley Cup finalists since 2005-06, only the 2009-10 Flyers have had a losing road record, at 17-21-3). That would especially hold true for the Flyers if they can make a run, as they are very likely to be on the wrong end of home-ice advantage if they clinch a berth.

Things aren't looking pretty for the Flyers right now. But there's still lots of pucks to be dropped and plenty of hockey to be played, and anything is possible in a 42-game span. Stranger things have happened, especially with the Flyers involved.

Rob Riches is a contributor to Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Riches61.