ANAHEIM, Calif. — While the Flyers continue to identify the problems that have led to another bad start, there’s also reason to believe the end is nowhere in sight.
History under Dave Hakstol suggests a turnaround won’t take place until after Thanksgiving.
Take a close inspection of Hakstol’s first three seasons as head coach and it appears as if he’s working from the same template. A pattern that shows this team is not only plagued by slow starts to games but also an equally frustrating slow start to each season.
In 2017-18, the Flyers stood at 8-11-7 and last place in the Metropolitan Division on Dec. 2.
In 2016-17, the Flyers dropped to 9-10-3 and in seventh place in the division on Nov. 25.
In 2015-16, the Flyers started with a 7-10-5 mark and last place in the Metro on Nov. 25.
“Each team is really different. I think you’d be mistaken to compare,” Hakstol said. “You can compare the records, but each team is very different. This team is very different than the team we had last year. We haven’t scored the first goal in a hockey game and that’s something we should be taking personally as we get this deep into the season. There are some things we’re addressing and have addressed.”
Regardless of how similar or contrasting each team is from one season to the next, those records through the first two months of the season should point to a much broader concern. One that should have been addressed during the summer.
“Expectation,” Jakub Voracek said. “And rightfully so, everyone’s expecting us to be a great team, which we are obviously capable of doing. We were doing that from December on, so maybe overthinking things? Right now, I think the problem is that we’re trying to do someone else’s job. You just have to do your own job.
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“It’s hard to come up with something and say this is the problem, let’s fix it and we’re going to be good. It doesn’t work like that. Sometimes you play a good game and you find a way to lose it because you’re not used to winning those games.”
Voracek also agrees that what the Flyers are experiencing right now is perhaps worse than last season’s 10-game winless stretch when the team was at the very least playing competitive games. Six of those losses were one-goal games and five came after regulation. In the Flyers' seven losses this season, six have been by three goals or more.
“Yes, 100 percent, those games were one-sided games,” Voracek said. “Last three games if we’re talking about the three-game losing streak, we didn’t have any business to win any of those games. We’ve got to make sure we grind out some points.”
Through 11 games, there hasn’t been one facet to this team Hakstol hasn’t reshuffled in an effort to generate better results. He’s rearranged his defensive pairings and his forward lines, and on Monday, the Flyers' coach went as far as to replace Voracek and Wayne Simmonds on the top power-play unit with Travis Konecny and Nolan Patrick (see story).
“Two years ago I was taken off for a little bit,” Voracek said. “Yeah, I was a little bit [surprised]. But right now, nothing’s going right. It cannot hurt. We have a lot of experienced guys. We shouldn’t be in this situation, but we are now.”
And a familiar situation the Flyers shouldn’t be surprised with either.
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