Not again — Flyers in bad franchise company after losing 8th straight

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The Flyers' 2021-22 season continues to careen dangerously off course.

The club is flirting with another 10-game losing streak after dropping its eighth straight in a 4-1 decision Monday night to the Islanders at UBS Arena in Elmont, New York.

In this eight-game drop-off, the Flyers (13-18-7) have yielded 4.00 goals per game while scoring only 1.88.

Travis Konecny was their lone goal scorer against New York.

The Islanders (12-13-6) improved to 7-3-1 in their last 11 games. They came in scoring the NHL's third-fewest goals per game at 2.23 and sealed their victory over the Flyers with an empty-netter.

• This is the first time the Flyers have had two losing streaks of eight games or more in the same season since 2006-07, when they finished an NHL-worst 22-48-12.

In that season, the Flyers had separate losing streaks of 10 games (0-9-1) and nine games (0-8-1).

This season, the Flyers lost 10 straight (0-8-2) from Nov. 18 to Dec. 8 and now eight straight (0-6-2).

That's staggering stuff. It's extremely hard to make something of a season when you pile up two skids of that magnitude.

The March 21 trade deadline is still a ways away but general manager Chuck Fletcher has to already be contemplating some difficult, difficult decisions.

• Rasmus Ristolainen made his return to the lineup after a stint on the NHL's COVID protocol list.

The Finnish blueliner provided his typical physicality but was in coverage for both of New York's first two goals.

Considering the Flyers hadn't scored more than two goals in any of their previous five games, they were facing an uphill battle at that point in the second period.

Ristolainen's nastiness in front is good. However, Ristolainen can sometimes get stuck there and he then becomes a screen, which is essentially what happened on the second marker.

He wasn't the only culprit on those goals but Ristolainen will have to be better for the Flyers, especially without Ryan Ellis.

• Backup goalie Martin Jones made 27 saves on 30 shots. He was 3-1-1 in his previous five games and once again gave the Flyers a fighter's chance.

New York netminder Ilya Sorokin entered 5-0-1 with a 1.58 goals-against average and .944 save percentage in his career against the Flyers. The 26-year-old stopped 26 of the Flyers' 27 shots Monday night.

• Through a head-scratching goal drought of 20 straight games, Konecny was second on the Flyers in shots, behind only Cam Atkinson.

So it's appropriate that he snapped the second-longest dry spell of his career on a fluky goal.

He wasn't even shooting on the play.

With the Flyers down 2-0 in the second period, Konecny gave the Flyers life as his pass attempt took a whacky ricochet off the arm of Islanders defenseman Noah Dobson and into the net.

The only longer goalless skid Konecny experienced was a 22-gamer his rookie year in 2016-17.

Konecny's goal was the 100th of his NHL career but it failed to spark the Flyers. They were back down two goals only 4:44 minutes into the third period when Anthony Beauvillier made it 3-1.

• During the opening stanza, the Flyers had a pair of power plays but registered only one combined shot on those opportunities. They've scored four first-period goals over their eight-game losing streak.

The Flyers' man advantage finished 0 for 4 with three shots. Their penalty kill went 1 for 1 and recorded two shots.

With the game still scoreless in the middle stanza, Scott Laughton and Atkinson had good shorthanded looks but couldn't beat Sorokin.

• The Flyers and Islanders are right back at it Tuesday when the clubs meet at the Wells Fargo Center (7 p.m. ET/ESPN+, Hulu).

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