Flyers' Major Issues Beginning to Bubble to the Surface with Season Spiraling

The Philadelphia Flyers, who are now losers of 12 of their first 15 games this season, could very well be in more trouble than their porous 3-8-4 record indicates.

To briefly recap, the Flyers started their season on a dismal nine-game losing streak, barely looking like a professional hockey team and getting handily outplayed in the overwhelming majority of those games.

Then followed a three-game win streak, which saw the Flyers beat the likes of Ottawa, Colorado, and Buffalo.

Now, we're back to a three-game losing streak, and many of the concerns that plagued the team in the first nine games have returned. Questionable compete level, a lack of detailed defending, and emotional irregularity at times characterized by head coach Rick Tocchet as "nervous", "shy", and "cocky".

"Shy" was Tocchet's newest label, used to describe the Flyers and their inconsistent willingness to get body position against their opposition, the Washington Capitals, in a 5-2 loss on Wednesday night.

Hits were actually 32-23 in Washington's favor in a fairly physical affair; that's not such an insane disparity for a team as young and as small as the Flyers are.

The problem, however, is the effort.

Over the weekend, the Flyers had 2-0 and 3-2 leads over Anaheim and blew the game to lose in regulation. On Tuesday night, the Flyers spotted Columbus a 3-0 lead after a first period that saw them record just one shot on goal.

Defenseman Travis Sanheim, a key piece of the leadership group, called the first-period effort "unusual" with seemingly no players ready to play.

And now this game against the Capitals. The vets are beginning to grow tired of the losing and starting to say the quiet parts out loud.

"At times this year we're soft. I would say not hard on battles, and we lose battles easily. It's one thing to make mistakes and not win a battle. If you're in there trying hard and stuff, then it's different," Flyers captain Sean Couturier told traveling media after the 5-2 loss.

And Couturier wasn't the only one who made eyebrow-raising comments after the game.

Veteran defenseman Nick Seeler, who doesn't wear a letter on his sweater but probably should, took it a step further than his captain.

"We've certainly had our discussions in the room, especially with our starts and after the first. It's just focus levels and compete levels and playing for the crest. I mean, that's what it's all about. It's not about getting points, it's not about 'me, me me.' It's about the team and playing for each other and sacrificing for each other," an impassioned Seeler said.

"It's really not that difficult to understand. You play for the guy next to you. That's what Flyers hockey is all about, and when we can start figuring that out at the start, puck drop, we will be a better hockey team."

Tocchet carefully echoed the sentiment shared by Seeler and Couturier, and warned that changes could come as a result.

"You got to be careful what your agenda is. There's times when you should change, get your buddy on the ice when he's fresh instead of trying for one more last rush and then changing on the way back. Things like that are what I think Nick's talking about," Tocchet added.

"You can't do that sort of stuff. Accountability starts for me, start going to have to take some ice time from that. Leadership is going to have to do a little bit of that, too. I think it's important that doesn't creep into your room, 100%."

Tocchet's given example is something that could conceivably affect two of the Flyers' leading point-getters, Matvei Michkov and Trevor Zegras. The two offensive dynamos tend to extend their shifts the most in favor of generating scoring opportunities.

According to Natural Stat Trick, Michkov and Christian Dvorak are tied for the team lead amongst forwards with 44 "long" shifts at 5-on-5, with Zegras right behind at 43.

Zegras's average 5-on-5 shift length is 47 seconds, tying him with Travis Sanheim for the longest average shift on the entire team.

How Tocchet, Couturier, and Co. choose to police the struggles and evidently growing unrest remains to be seen, but what is clear is that this Flyers team is going nowhere, fast.