Morning After: Defense faces tough challenge without Coburn

There are times where Braydon Coburn looks totally out of place in the Flyers defensive system. I even criticized his positioning on the Bruins first goal on Wednesday night.

But it is games like the Flyers home opener on Thursday, a 6-4 loss to the Devils, where his absence proves costly.

Less of Coburn means more of Luke Schenn and Michael Del Zotto, a pairing that is bound to be nothing but trouble for the Flyers.

With Coburn out for some time, the Flyers will face the challenge of piecing together the defense.

Coburn's replacement was Nick Schultz, who all in all did a fair job filling the void, even earning penalty kill time. Andrew MacDonald did a good job working with Schultz.

But the pairing of Schenn and Del Zotto, who combined to be minus-8 on the night, just simply aren't getting the job done defensively. Del Zotto is expected to play more of an offensive role. We've seen in the first two games his ability to move the puck out of the zone and work on the power play. But Schenn is turning into a liability at the blueline.

Several times last season, Schenn sat out as a healthy scratch. If any of the Flyers young defensemen in Lehigh Valley start to make noise, it shouldn't be out of the realm that Schenn could lose his job.

But it is early, and for some Flyers, getting early goals this season is important. Look no further than captain Claude Giroux, who started the comeback with a power-play goal in the second. It took Giroux until Nov. 8 to score his first goal last season.

Wayne Simmonds and Vincent Lecavalier also appeared on the scoresheet several times. These are the players that need to be productive for the Flyers that weren't there early last season. So early goals are encouraging.

But as Giroux pointed out after the game, with the injuries on the blue line, two-way hockey is more important.

"I think the forwards have to play better defense," Giroux said. "We've got to protect our net better and play better in front of Mase."

Craig Berube saw the encouraging signs – two power-play goals, a second period rally and goals from players that will need to carry a bulk of the scoring. But the defense, which played well in Boston, didn't repeat that performance during the home opener.

"We did a lot of good things," Berube said, "but it's not good enough. Obviously, we lost the game.

"I think our team is working hard as a team out there. We just had a few breakdowns and it went in the net."

For the third straight season, the Flyers opened up 0-2-0 following two games. This may not be last year's team, but shades of the start that got Berube the head coaching job may be creeping back into some minds. The Flyers aren't letting the record get to them.

"It's obviously not the start we wanted," Giroux said. "We have a lot of work to do."

"There's plenty of games to go," Steve Mason said. "No need to push the panic button."

Kevin Durso is the lead beat writer for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @KDursoPhilsNet.