Sean Couturier didn't hide behind clichés after the Philadelphia Flyers dropped a third straight game Wednesday night in Washington.
The Flyers captain went after his team's lack of toughness and intensity following a 5-2 loss to the Capitals. And he had plenty of evidence.
The Flyers now sit at 3-8-4 with 10 points. That's 29th overall and dead last in the Metropolitan Division.
Couturier was one of the few Flyers who actually showed up. He scored, finished plus-1 and fired 3 shots in 18:17 of ice time.
That goal was his first of the season, 15 games in. Nobody can accuse a guy sitting on 4 points of hiding behind a hot stat line.
Rick Tocchet landed in a similar spot. The Flyers head coach acknowledged a consistency problem, and the schedule backs him up.
The Flyers ripped off three straight wins over Ottawa, Colorado and Buffalo earlier this month. Then came a 5-4 loss to Anaheim, a 4-3 overtime loss to Columbus and Wednesday's mess.
A minus-22 goal differential exposes what the Flyers really lack
The scoring just isn't there. The Flyers average 1.9 goals per game while giving up 3.4.
The Capitals didn't need anything fancy. Alex Tuch scored twice on 5 shots, Jordan Kyrou added two of his own, including one on the power play, and Dylan Strome set up three.
It was the first meeting between the two clubs this season. The Flyers head back to Washington on November 25, and they'd better bring a different attitude.
Joseph Woll stopped 25 of 29 shots. His season save percentage sits at .899, and Daniel Vladar isn't doing much better at .888.
Asking either goalie to steal games behind this group is like asking a smoke detector to put out the fire. It can only tell you something's wrong.
So where's the help coming from? Not the infirmary, at least not yet.
Owen Tippett is out until at least November 1 with an upper-body injury. Travis Konecny isn't expected back before November 3 because of a lower-body issue.
Rasmus Ristolainen, sidelined with a hand injury, won't return before November 11 at the earliest.
That leaves Matvei Michkov carrying a heavy load. The 21-year-old scored on the power play Wednesday, his ninth goal of the season and fifth with the man advantage.
Trevor Zegras leads the team with 13 points. Beyond those two, the offensive output falls off a cliff.
Daniel Briere has to own a piece of this. Travis Sanheim is a -10, Cam York went minus-8 over seven games, and no locker room speech fixes a blue line like that.
The Flyers are 1-5-1 away from home. They host Utah on Sunday afternoon and Minnesota on Tuesday before five straight road games starting in New York.
Couturier said his piece. Now the room has two home games to prove it was listening before Calgary, Vancouver and Edmonton get their turn.
