Things ain’t good in Philly.
The Flyers, who lost for the seventh time in eight games on Tuesday thanks to a 4-0 spanking from Colorado, held their second closed-door meeting of the young season afterward -- and while players weren’t divulging what was said, they didn’t make it hard to guess.
“It’s unacceptable,” Mark Streit told the Courier-Post. “It was a really poor performance on our part.”
“We’re embarrassed,” Ryan White said, per CSN Philly.
That the Flyers were smoked, at home, by one of the Western Conference’s bottom-feeders was bad enough. But the way in which they were smoked was especially troubling.
Michal Neuvirth, arguably the team’s best player this season, looked mediocre and let in an ugly Jarome Iginla goal in the opening period.
Jakub Voracek, who at this point must be desperate to score his first goal of the year, fired a mere two shots on Colorado backup Reto Berra.
Wayne Simmonds, one of the few forwards to put up reasonable production this season, had an especially telling quote, suggesting that the team wasn’t just playing dumb hockey -- it wasn’t even executing the game plan.
“We didn’t work smart,” he explained. “We send two guys in on the forecheck when the goalie is playing the puck. We’re not putting pucks in the proper spots and that’s what happens.”
When the dust finally settled on Tuesday night, the Flyers found themselves with a 5-7-3 record and the NHL’s second-worst offense. It’s tough to imagine the Dave Hakstol era starting any worse, and there will undoubtedly be questions about his ability to lead this group in the coming days.
Things don’t promise to get any easier for Hakstol and Philly, either.
On Thursday, they play host to the high-flying Washington Capitals.
Related: Hakstol: ‘We’re not happy. These aren’t easy times’