(Kate Frese/Sports Talk Philly)
By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 
Since their 10-game losing streak ended on Dec. 17, something just wasn't there with the Flyers play.
Sure, they were going to see the streak snapped sometime soon and lost a hard-fought game to Nashville followed by a determined win over Washington.
It was the game in New Jersey the next night, the final night before the holiday break, that started the snowball effect.
It took three games before the Flyers started to play with the compete level they had demonstrated on the winning streak. Despite taking 55 shots on Anaheim's net on Sunday, it wasn't enough in a shootout loss.
The Flyers, who are 1-4-2 since the winning streak ended and 0-3-1 in their last four games, desperately need results.
It is a crucial week for the Flyers, who start to face more challenging teams from their own conference. After having two days off from game action, they face the New York Rangers on Wednesday night, a team eight points ahead of them in the standings.
On Saturday, it's the Tampa Bay Lightning who pay a visit. The Flyers have lost their first two meetings against the Lightning and Tampa has been climbing up the Eastern Conference ranks, now within two points of a playoff spot and three points of the Flyers.
And then on Sunday, the Flyers get the daunting task of facing the Columbus Blue Jackets, who last lost a game in November. The Blue Jackets could be riding an NHL-record 18-game winning streak by the time the Flyers pay a visit on Sunday, with two games still to play this week before facing the Orange and Black.
Part of the reason the Flyers need to focus on righting the ship is exactly what GM Ron Hextall warned about a week ago. The Flyers couldn't have the post-holiday letdown. But here we are again, looking at a team with a losing streak entering the first week of January.
The shootout is always a flip of a coin. So 55 shots on goal doesn't mean anything once the game goes to the skills competition. But losing the second point on Sunday night hurt for this team and despite feeling upbeat about the overall performance, it wasn't enough to come back home with a positive result to go along with some positive vibes.
So the week becomes crucial for the Flyers to string together some wins and try to pad the cushion built in the standings back up. The problem is the games will only get harder as the Flyers start facing well established playoff teams or teams working on record-long win streaks.
