Slow Start Does Flyers in Again

(Kate Frese/Sports Talk Philly)

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

The Flyers once again recovered from a slow start on Thursday on the scoreboard. But what they couldn't do was fix the mistakes that forced them to climb out of another hole.

The Flyers allowed three goals in the third period in a 5-4 loss to the Coyotes, allowed the first goal for the seventh straight game and really never recovered from yet another slow start.

Slow starts and poor defensive play are starting to do the Flyers in, and the schedule only gets harder from here.

"There are several things that we weren’t good enough in certain areas," head coach Dave Hakstol said. "Number one, the start. We got ourselves a two goal deficit and weren’t very good with the puck there and quite honestly throughout the game we just weren’t good enough without the puck. Some of that is the response from being a little bit sloppy with it and turning it over in poor situations. But there are a lot of areas that we weren’t good enough in tonight."

"The whole team, as a team we need to make sure were on that same page," Claude Giroux said. "First period was not pretty and we know that, we need to find a way to come out stronger."

Thursday night in particular was one of the Flyers worst. They trailed 2-0 after the first period. Everything was off. Passes were in different area codes. There were missed assignments on defense. The Flyers were constantly outmuscled in puck battles, blocked out for shot chances and frustration was clearly starting to mount as the game progressed.

Despite a second period that saw the Flyers claw back again, the Flyers eventually hurt themselves.

"We did some good things sporadically but you don’t win games by doing a few good things sporadically throughout the game," Hakstol said. "You have to be good from start to finish, individually, collectively and that’s how you win games."

"I mean, you can start thinking 'could have, should have, would have,' but in reality we’re just not playing good enough hockey right now," Brayden Schenn said. "We really need these two points. These are the ones we really want to have. We don’t want to be behind the eight ball again starting the season.

"Again, our start wasn’t great again tonight. We keep talking about it, but until we start doing something about it, nothing is going to change."

What is more alarming is that this came against a Coyotes team that has struggled out of the game. They won their season opener against the Flyers 12 days ago, then embarked on a six-game road trip that opened with five losses.

And the Flyers get the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday, a team with a renewed energy now that captain Sidney Crosby is back in the lineup. And the realization for where the Flyers are at as they prepare for a quick turnaround on Saturday is an alarming one.

"Tonight we were bad. We didn’t play well to start this game," Hakstol said. "We didn’t have the intensity to begin the game at the drop of the puck. It wasn’t there. We have to address that, we have to get better.

"We have to look at ourselves and that always starts when we wake up in the morning and look in the mirror. That starts with me and that goes through our entire group."

Saturday would be a good start, but after poor showings against Buffalo and Arizona, you might not want to hold your breath.