Flyers Fail To Reach .500 Again, Fall to Maple Leafs

The Philadelphia Flyers lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 tonight.

Flyers fail to reach .500 for the 6th time this season

Tonight was the 6th time the Flyers had an opportunity to gain a .500 record this season and it was the 6th time that they failed.

Philadelphia continues their inconsistent ways as they fail to string together wins again and again. The only thing that has been consistent of late has been that fact that they have fallen down by multiple goals in 4 straight games. The Flyers were able to mount comebacks against Pittsburgh and Winnipeg but failed to do so against Florida and now tonight against Toronto. It's a trend that has to stop if the Flyers are going to make the playoffs and they certainly know it.

After the game Scott Hartnell told CSN Philly, "It's been talked about too many times (not playing a full 60 minutes) and its gotta change fast. We can't get down by 2 every game and expect to win. It's just frustrating to be apart of it."

Hartnell scores his 1st goal of season

As Scott Hartnell points out, the Flyers consistently fail to play a full 60 minutes. But when they do, they are a great team. "When we play like we did in the last 10 minutes, I don't think there is anyone in the league that can play with us. We were skating, hitting, beating them to pucks and winning battles. That's something in the first 50 minutes that we hardly did."

And that's the problem. Philadelphia has the talent and drive to win, they just take shifts off and drop their coverage allowing bad goals forcing them to play comeback over and over again.

Toronto scored the first goal of the game when Phil Kessel beat Ilya Bryzgalov on a bad angle from the right side. Then the Leafs scored the second goal of the game taking advantage of a slow line change. Nikolai Kulemin scored his first goal in the last 12 games putting it past Bryzgalov on the backhand to the low blocker side.

And the Flyers found themselves down by 2...again.

Philadelphia finally got on the board late in the 2nd period on a nice rush that saw Jake Voracek assist Hartnell in front of the net for his first goal of the season.

However, the Flyers came out flat in the 3rd period, despite the late goal, registering only 3 shots in the first 10 minutes and surrendering yet another goal. Mikkail Grabovski found a second rebound in front burying it past Bryzgalov putting the Flyers comeback on hold.

Leafs improve to 2-0 vs Flyers this season

The next 10 minutes would prove to be the best for the Flyers as Hartnell pointed out. They got back into the game on the PowerPlay. Voracek, who was named the NHL star of the week for his 11 points in 4 games, kept his hot streak going as he scored his 8th goal of the season cutting the lead to 1 again.

Unfortunately that would be as close as the Flyers would get.

Jay McClement tacked on an empty net goal sealing the victory for the Leafs, 4-2.

After the game, Bryzgalov spoke of the urgency for wins, telling CSN Philly, "We need to play every game like it's our last otherwise we'll be watching the playoffs on TV. We have lots of work in front of us."

Hartnell elaborated further, "If we don't learn fast, as in Wednesday night, it's going to be a long season. We're not going to make the playoffs if we keep playing this way."

The Flyers fell to 9-11-1 on the season.

Game Notes:

• Jake Voracek scored a goal and an assist extending his point streak to 6 games.
• Claude Giroux registered 2 assists. He now has a 5 game point streak.
• Giroux has scored multiple points in 5 of his last 7 games.
• Scott Hartnell, who scored his first goal of the season, was the only Flyers player on the plus (+1) side tonight.
• The Flyers outhit the Leafs 37-24.
• The Leafs have now beaten the Flyers in both meetings this season outscoring them 9-4.

Highlights:
To view highlights of tonight's game: CLICK HERE

Drop the Puck:
The Flyers look to put this loss behind them on Wednesday night when they face the Washington Capitals.