The Flyers are 30th in the NHL at 4-10-4 after last night's loss at the Rangers, and Joseph Woll's 25 saves weren't enough.
They're back in action Sunday in Calgary, the second stop of a five-game road trip. Rick Tocchet's team arrives on a two-game losing streak.
Thursday followed the script of this season. Noel Acciari and Simon Benoit scored, Denver Barkey, Jamie Drysdale and Tyson Foerster set them up, and Woll stopped 25 of 28 shots. Then the Rangers tied it on the power play with 6:08 left and took the lead at 15:21 of the third.
That leaves Philadelphia with 12 points through 18 games and 8th place in the Metropolitan Division. The standings aren't kind, and the schedule isn't about to get easier on the road.
The goal differential tells the rest. The Flyers have scored 39 and allowed 61, a -22 that sits right beside a 1-6-1 road record. Tuesday's 4-2 loss to the Wild, when Jamie Drysdale's costly turnover against Minnesota set the tone, was another night spent chasing the game.
The team itself confirmed the next stop on its own feed, noting the Flyers are back in action Sunday in Calgary.
Giving away a third-period game in New York is the kind of loss that keeps a team at the bottom of the league. Bottom-three clubs don't get to treat those games as bad luck.
The Flames are struggling too, and that matters
Calgary is 7-8-1 and 24th in the NHL, hardly a juggernaut. The Flames host the Ducks tonight, then wait for the Flyers on Sunday.
Philadelphia's recent form isn't a total wreck, either. The Flyers are 4-5-1 over their last 10, and the home record of 3-4-3 shows the trouble goes beyond the road.
Drysdale played 26:23 on Thursday, a heavy workload on a trip that has barely started. Foerster logged 17:13 and was on the ice for a +1 night that still ended in a loss.
If Sunday brings another lead that slips away, the questions about this roster will get louder fast. Three more games remain on the trip after Calgary, and the road record needs to move before then.
