The Flyers open a five-game road trip tonight at Madison Square Garden, and Rick Tocchet's team can't afford a slow start.
They enter 4-9-4 and sit 30th in the NHL, a hole that is already deep for early November. Tuesday's 2-4 loss to the Minnesota Wild only sharpened the urgency.
The team's official account put it simply, with a nod to the opponent.
The Flyers noted that the trip kicks off tonight with a Metro matchup in New York City. That label matters, because the division picture is not kind to Philadelphia right now.
They are 8th in the Metropolitan Division with 12 points, and the Rangers sit 3rd with 17 points. Those five points are a real gap, but it's one a good week can start to close.
The problem is how this team has played away from home. The Flyers are 1-5-1 on the road, which is the number that makes this trip look like a mountain instead of a getaway.
The goal differential tells the same story. Philadelphia has scored 37 and allowed 58, a -21 that no amount of effort talk can hide.
Why the Flyers' road trip could define Tocchet's season
Here is the part that should worry Flyers fans: the Rangers are not exactly a juggernaut at home or away. New York is 7-2-0 at the Garden, though it is only 1-5-1 on the road, so Philadelphia is walking into a building where the home team has been very good.
That makes the opener a legitimate test. A production problem that goes beyond one loss was already the talk before puck drop, and nothing in the standings has changed that.
There is some good news buried in the numbers. The Flyers are 4-4-2 over their last 10, which is not a team in free fall, just one that dug itself a hole early and hasn't climbed out.
Five straight games away from the Wells Fargo Center is a chance to reset, and also a chance to bury the season. Win a few and the 30th-place label starts to look temporary. Drop most of them and the questions around Tocchet and general manager Daniel Briere get louder fast.
This is a bad spot to be in at 17 games, and the schedule offers no cushion. A team that has won once on the road all year doesn't suddenly become a good traveler because the calendar says so.
Philadelphia plays the Rangers tonight, and the next four stops will say whether this group is climbing back or settling in at the bottom.
