Jakub Voracek has yet to score a goal in eight games this season. He scored a career-high 22 goals last season. Photo Courtesy of ESPN.com
The Flyers locker room on Monday was full of quotable
moments: from Steve Mason’s comments about playing in Philadelphia to Claude
Giroux’s bold prediction.
If there’s one thing the Flyers could use the week off for,
it’s self-evaluation.
For many Flyers, there aren’t many positives to pull from
self-evaluation. But at this point, with a week off to reflect on a 1-7-0
start, there is a lot of self-motivating.
One such case is of the team’s leading scoring in the
lockout-shortened 2013 season. Jake Voracek has yet to score a goal in eight games. He has three assists. Still, following his self-evaluation, he is motivated to return to his goal-scoring ways.
"Obviously, I can be way better. I have three secondary assists in eight games," Voracek said. "I don't want to make excuses that I got hurt in the preseason, because someone could say [that's why] I don't have a goal yet."
Between the Flyers 1-7-0 start and Voracek's lack of scoring, Voracek is determined to meet the expectations he was shouldered with following a career year.
"Everybody would have higher expectations," Voracek said. "I’m trying to get to that level where I was in the preseason. I think these days will help me."
Voracek admitted that he and many of his teammates are lacking confidence, a natural occurrence when a team goes through a lack of scoring and a four-game losing streak. But Voracek feels that the Flyers are ready to turn a corner.
"You don’t score the goals, that’s what happens," Voracek said. "That is what happened to everyone. No matter how good you are. If you have a slump, if you don’t score the goals, and hit a couple posts, miss a couple open nets, lose three or four games in a row by one goal or get scored on an empty net goal, it kind of drags you down.
"We got to get it back. We’re skating hard in practice. It’s a good thing and it’s only going to help us."
The Flyers could use that from a lot of people. Moving forward, a turnaround has to begin somewhere. The first chance for that is on Thursday.
Kevin Durso is a contributor for Flyerdelphia. You can follow him on twitter @KDursoPhilsNet.
