Flyers fans won't like this 2006-07 comparison

BroadStHockey asked it this afternoon: are these Flyers worse than the 2006-07 team?

It sounds like an overreaction until you see the number JHallNBCS put next to it. The 2006-07 Flyers were 5-12-2 through 19 games and finished 22-48-12. This year's group is 4-10-5 through the same 19, with fewer wins.

That 2006-07 comparison is the only historical one we have from those posts, so we'll leave it there. It's enough to make the point.

The Flyers are sitting on 13 points, 29th in the NHL and eighth in the Metropolitan Division. They have lost three straight, the latest a 4-3 overtime loss in Calgary on Sunday night.

The goal differential is where it gets ugly. Philadelphia has scored 42 and allowed 65, a -23 that tells you this isn't just a bad bounce here and there.

The road is the other soft spot. The Flyers are 1-6-2 away from home, and they play on the road tonight.

Is the Flyers' one-goal luck about to turn?

JHallNBCS also supplied the most painful number in the file. Ten of the Flyers' games have been decided by a single goal, and they are 1-4-5 in them, so nine of those ten have been losses.

That is the one piece that should regress. A team that wins even a few of those has a very different record and a very different mood around the building.

But luck doesn't explain a -23 goal differential. Rick Tocchet's team gives up goals in bunches and doesn't score enough to cover for it, and the overtime points that pad the record can't hide that.

The schedule hands them a chance tonight in Vancouver. The Canucks are 3-15-1, dead last in the NHL at 32nd, and they've lost five in a row.

They're 1-7-0 at home and 1-9-0 over their last 10, so the Flyers aren't the only team looking for answers. Philadelphia should treat this as the cleanest opening it will get all month. Win it, and the 2006-07 talk gets quieter for a night. Lose it to the worst team in the league, and the comparison gets harder to dismiss.

Quick hits

ISLANDERSPete DeBoer says Mathew Barzal, Matias Maccelli and Ryan Pulock could all return during the California road trip. That would be a major lift for a team that has been missing key pieces.

SAN JOSE SHARKSAndrew Gross reports that Ilya Sorokin took the Islanders' starter's net for the morning skate, ahead of tonight's game in San Jose. The Sharks get the goalie coming off his best game.

MINNESOTA WILDSun Garrioch reports that the Wild have placed defenseman Cam Crotty on waivers. The Senators hold the first right to reclaim him.

TORONTO MAPLE LEAFSAnother injury, this time on the blue line. Joshua Kloke reports that defenseman Ben Danford has broken his wrist.

DALLAS STARSBrien Rea reports that Remi Poirier is back with the Stars off waivers. The goalie stays in the organization.