(Kate Frese/SB Nation)
By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 
The Flyers top line success has been highly profiled over the course of the season. Through 17 games, the Flyers top line has been among the most productive in the NHL, totalling 23 goals and 60 points.
But the top line’s success has also masterfully hidden a glaring problem for the Flyers early: the lack of secondary scoring.
It was a topic GM Ron Hextall mentioned just moments before puck drop on Saturday night, when the Minnesota Wild managed to stifle the top line and expose the problem.
The Flyers have spent the last eight games without Nolan Patrick, the headlining rookie among a group of first-year players with the Flyers in the NHL. Hextall was asked if Patrick’s absence has been a contributing factor to the lack of secondary scoring. The GM was quick to point out that Patrick’s absence isn’t the problem.
“We weren’t getting a lot then either,” Hextall said. “It’s something we need to get better at, we’ve discussed it. We have a lot of good players there. For whatever reason, the chemistry just hasn’t been there. They haven’t been getting a ton of breaks, so hopefully they can break through. We need more scoring from other parts and lines other than Couturier’s line.”
Saturday night was the fourth time on the season the Flyers have been shut out. For Claude Giroux, it was only the fifth game this season where he didn’t record a point. For Sean Couturier, it was his sixth. For Jake Voracek, it was his seventh. Obviously, there are four games where all three have been held silent due to shutouts from the opposition.
While Hextall is pointing out that secondary scoring was a problem before the injuries started to pile up, it still wasn’t as noticeable. In the Flyers first eight games of the season, the top line scored nine goals. The other three lines combined for 16 goals, a little more than five for each line.
But in the last nine games, it’s been a glaring problem. The Flyers top line of Giroux, Couturier and Voracek have scored 14 goals. The rest of the forwards have just five. The Flyers also have three goals from defensemen.
It seems that the easy thing to do or the knee-jerk reaction is to split up the top line, to try to balance out the scoring.
The problem isn’t the top line, it’s the lack of chemistry and balance on the secondary lines.
The Flyers have two talented young players who can certainly get to the net and make plays in Travis Konecny and Jordan Weal. Konecny was recently put on the second line, and while playing with Wayne Simmonds and Valtteri Filppula has led to some chances, it is a line that has been hampered by bad luck.
Simmonds has dealt with some injuries this season despite playing in every game. Hextall said Simmonds was 100 percent on Saturday, but the Flyers leading scorer for the last few seasons opened the year with six goals in eight games and has been silenced for the last nine.
Filppula has also been decent to start the season. For that line, it seems like more of a tough luck thing than anything else.
However, Patrick’s absence has directly affected the third line. Weal is essentially buried on a line with Jori Lehtera and Dale Weise. Weal’s speed, hockey smarts and playmaking skills are so far advanced from the others that the line possesses no balance. Weal is essentially the target and in a rare instance, it may open something up for a linemate, like it did for Weise on Nov. 4 against Colorado.
The Flyers fourth line has really been lacking on the scoresheet, but the trio of Scott Laughton, Taylor Leier and Michael Raffl, nicknamed the “Honey Bees,” has at least shown an ability to create opportunities in the offensive zone. On many nights, this line has been the Flyers best among secondary lines.
That’s a problem from players like Weal and Konecny, who should be taking a step forward in their progress as NHL players. That’s a problem for Simmonds, who isn’t getting it done at even strength or on the man-advantage.
And while there may be calls for the Flyers to get somebody from the minors to try to shake things up, this group — and Patrick once he returns — are the players that will have to get it done on a nightly basis.
“I think at some point here you have to force it into the net,” Simmonds said after Saturday’s loss. “Whether it is driving the net and have three guys whacking at it or something. Something has to break so we have to work a little bit harder and a little bit smarter and hopefully we get it going on Tuesday.”
To Hextall’s point, many of these players have been good in different ways, whether it is defensive responsibility or generating puck possession and offensive zone pressure. But players have to finish to and when the top line isn’t doing that, the Flyers offense and production has completely disappeared.
The Flyers earliest experimentation in fixing this problem came in Monday’s practice. Weal was moved to center with Weise and Simmonds on the wing. Filppula centered the third line with Lehtera and Konecny on the wing.
The Metropolitan Division is incredibly competitive this season and as we near the completion of the first quarter of the regular season, the Flyers have at least managed to remain competitive among their division counterparts, even with only one game played against a division opponent.
That said, getting scoring from all parts of the lineup is the key. The Flyers have leaned heavily on the top line to produce and to this point they have, but when they go silent, it becomes just another shutout for the Flyers. That gets tired fast.
Tuesday night presents the Flyers first chance to start that turnaround. And while the resurgence of the top line players has been enjoyable, if someone else was in the middle of the offensive contribution for the Flyers in a winning effort, it would certainly a welcome sign.
