A dud brought the Flyers to double digits.
The team's losing streak reached 10 games Wednesday night as the Flyers dropped to the Devils, 3-0, at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
The Flyers are 0-8-2 during their nosedive, a stretch in which they've been outscored 46-18.
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The club will hold out hope for some history repeating itself. Weirdly, the last two times the Flyers dropped 10 in a row, they made the playoffs. They went 0-5-5 from Nov. 11 to Dec. 2 in 2017-18 but went on to finish with a 98-point season and a playoff berth. In 2007-08, the Flyers went 0-8-2 from Feb. 6-23 but stormed to the Eastern Conference Final.
The way things are going now, the 2021-22 Flyers would prove just about everybody wrong if they somehow pull off a run to the postseason. The club is 8-12-4, looks lost and fired its head coach two days ago.
Nothing has gone right.
"We don't have an identity," a beleaguered Claude Giroux said Monday.
NHL
The Devils (10-9-5) are 2-4-2 in their last eight games. Both victories came against the Flyers.
• The Flyers are a mess right now. There's just no other way to put it.
They're flat offensively, with so little firepower. They're turning over the puck in breakouts. And they're playing so much in the defensive zone that it has become simply a matter of time before they give up a goal and find themselves playing from behind.
Is Ryan Ellis their savior? We'll find out if it's not too late by then.
The Flyers have yielded 10 goals in two games since firing Alain Vigneault. Not sure the head coach that ranks among the top 10 in all-time wins was the problem.
Interim head coach Mike Yeo is no slouch, either. He has gone to the playoffs four times. If he can swing this the other way and make it five, his résumé should shoot to the top of the pile for the Flyers' job.
• Carter Hart made 24 saves on 26 shots. He played much better after being pulled in his last outing.
Jesper Bratt got him on a nice shot in the second period to open the scoring. Dawson Mercer put the Flyers in a 2-0 hole six minutes later when he was left alone in front of Hart for a power play deflection.
New Jersey's final tally was an empty-netter by Michael McLeod.
Devils netminder Mackenzie Blackwood entered 7-0-2 with a 2.30 goals-against average and .928 save percentage lifetime against the Flyers. He stopped all 25 shots he faced Wednesday night.
• Sean Couturier, James van Riemsdyk and Travis Konecny have scored one goal apiece in the last 15 games.
Couturier is a two-time 30-plus goal scorer. Van Riemsdyk has scored 30 or more twice with a career-high of 36. Konecny was an All-Star at 22 years old, leading the Flyers in both goals (24) and points (61) that season in 2019-20.
The Flyers desperately need these three players to produce. When all three are quiet? It's crushing.
Since Oct. 30, the Flyers have scored 1.72 goals per game, the fewest in the NHL over that span. They've gone 4-11-3 during that stretch and have been shut out four times through those 18 games.
The Flyers were shut out five times in 125 games over the previous two seasons.
• Derick Brassard returned to the lineup after missing the last six games with a hip issue. The 34-year-old forward played 14:20 minutes.
Defenseman Kevin Connauton, who the Flyers claimed off of waivers Tuesday, eventually joined the club in Newark but did not play. He'll be an option during the Flyers' upcoming back-to-back set.
• Former Flyer and current player development coach Nick Schultz was behind the bench to help Yeo and assistant coach Darryl Williams.
• The Flyers head to Las Vegas for a matchup Friday with the Golden Knights (10 p.m. ET/NBCSP). They're right back at it Saturday when they visit the Coyotes in Glendale, Arizona (9 p.m. ET/NBCSP).
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