Postgame Perspective: Early embarrassment needs to wake up Flyers

On Thursday night, when the Flyers skated off the ice following a 3-2 overtime loss, there were many positives about the effort and how it could beat many teams.

That was against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the defending Eastern Conference Champions and easily a pick to be in the Stanley Cup hunt again this season.

The Florida Panthers are not the same team. It's too early in the season to dub the last season's borderline teams as playoff teams or not, but if you didn't know any better, the Panthers were the defending Stanley Cup Champions and the Flyers were the Mighty Ducks against Iceland.

You know what word comes to mind when you think of that? Pathetic.

Good team or not, no team should ever be embarrassed like that just two games into the season. No team should come out that unprepared, that uncoordinated, that unwilling to play. It is completely unacceptable.

Defensively, the team that did such a good job controlling Tampa Bay's best scorers was porous and lifeless. The Panthers were 3-for-7 on the power play. They were beat to every puck. They were allowing forwards to gain position. They were simply awful.

Luke Schenn was a minus-3. Evgeny Medvedev and Nick Schultz were minus-2.

Offensively, it was more of the same. One lone power play goal by a defenseman. That doesn't win games. And although Roberto Luongo made some good saves, it was a pretty easy night for the Panthers goalie.

So far this season, the Flyers have three goals — a whopping average of 1.5 per game. The goal scorers are Matt Read, Brayden Schenn and Mark Streit.

The Panthers managed 30 shots on goal in the game. The Flyers had 39 in the 60 minutes. Seven goals on 30 shots for one team, one on 39 for the other.

And finally, there is the goalie.

Steve Mason is more than entitled to a bad game. It happens to the best. But four goals allowed on eight shots, including one off a turnover and another on poor rebound control on a dump-in, in just 6:46 is unacceptable.

Honestly, it was surprising Mason allowed four goals, because after third, you would have expected the goalie change then. Even Craig Berube last season had a quick hook for Ray Emery when he allowed two goals on four shots in a game on January 27.

Here are the lessons the Flyers need to take from this game.

First off, this is Dave Hakstol's first chance to make his mark on the team. And really, it's also a chance for the players to take that look in the mirror that Mason talked about after the season opener and respond to this loss.

It wasn't long into Craig Berube's tenure as head coach that the Flyers were bombarded by a 7-0 score against the Washington Capitals. It brought their record to 3-9-0. That team made the playoffs with a 42-30-10 record.

Secondly, this should serve as a reality check for the 18 Flyers skaters. Yes, Mason had a terrible game and he fully acknowledged it. But Mason was so good in Thursday's opener, nearly carrying the team to a win.

The bottom line is that this team cannot lean on its goalie every game. These nights are going to happen. Sometimes it will just be a night when Mason lets in three or four over 60 minutes. Others, it will be three or four in a period and force a goalie change. Regardless, there is another way to prevent goals and that's with confident decisions and gritty play in the neutral zone and in the defensive end.

Finally, it's about the play moving forward. If this kind of embarrassment, just two games into the season, doesn't flip the switch, nothing will. 

The Flyers get a friendly reminder of how Saturday's game went on Monday. The Florida Panthers are the Flyers first opponent of the 2015-16 season at Wells Fargo Center.

The response is everything and if they don't respond with much more confidence and energy to their game, then the likelihood that they will ever be able to put together a winning stretch seems even less likely too.

It better be a wake-up call for the Flyers, who talk a very big game when it comes to being a good team and confident bunch. Because they looked like anything but that on Saturday.

Kevin Durso is managing editor for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.