Matvei Michkov and the Flyers visit the Rangers on Thursday, and they badly need a road win after Tuesday's loss to the Wild.
Philadelphia is 4-9-4 for 12 points, 29th in the NHL. The 4-2 defeat to Minnesota on Tuesday night was another game where the Flyers spent most of the evening chasing.
The road is where it gets ugly. Rick Tocchet's team is 1-5-1 away from home, and the season goal differential sits at -21, with 37 goals for and 58 against.
New York is a different kind of opponent right now. The Rangers are 8-7-1, third in the Metropolitan Division, and a perfect-looking 7-2-0 at home. They beat the Blues 3-1 on Tuesday.
The Flyers sit eighth in the Metropolitan, and the gap to the teams above them is a real concern.
The 4-4-2 mark over the last 10 games shows the Flyers aren't in free fall. But a team that wins half its recent games and still sits 29th has a hole somewhere, and the road record is the biggest one.
Daniel Vladar took the loss against the Wild, stopping 18 of 21 shots. One of the three goals came after a Jamie Drysdale turnover against Minnesota, with his pass hitting the referee, so the goalie had little chance on that one.
Who is carrying the Flyers offense
Michkov leads the team with 10 goals and 13 points in 17 games, and five of those goals have come on the power play. He's also a -10, which says plenty about how lopsided Philadelphia's games have been when he's on the ice. Matvei Michkov carrying the Flyers offense has been the story for weeks, and it isn't a sustainable plan.
Trevor Zegras has 14 points, four goals and 10 assists, and he's sitting on 97 career goals. Three more and he reaches 100. He had an assist Tuesday but also finished a -3 and took 10 penalty minutes.
Denver Barkey gave the Flyers a small lift against the Wild, scoring his first goal of the season on the power play. It was one of the few bright spots in the loss.
The Flyers can't keep asking two or three forwards to outscore every problem on the back end and in the crease. If the road record doesn't move Thursday at the Rangers, the 12 points will start to look like a very hard hole to climb out of.
