The Philadelphia Flyers continue to set records for all the wrong reasons.
The Flyers sustained their 10th consecutive loss with a 2-1 setback to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday. They also dropped 10 in a row from Nov. 18-Dec. 8 and became the first team to lose 10 straight twice in the same season since the Colorado Avalanche in 2010-11.
The Flyers will look to avoid an 11th straight defeat when they visit the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday afternoon.
Philadelphia has been outscored 37-19 during this latest skid. Interim head coach Mike Yeo is 5-9-4 since taking over for Alain Vigneault on Dec. 6.
“We have to just make sure that, as a staff, we find reasons to believe and give them hope,” Yeo said. “I know that this group cares. This is not a lack of care.”
The Flyers went 0-for-4 on the power play against the Blue Jackets. During this second 10-game losing streak, they haven’t scored more than three goals in any game.
“You have to believe,” Cam Atkinson said. “Everyone has us written off. The only guys that are going to get out of it are the guys in the locker room. We have to stick together and hold each other accountable. At the end of the day, it’s going to be the guys in the room that are going to dig ourselves out of this mess.”
The Sabres will hope to rebound after a 5-4 loss to the Dallas Stars on Thursday.
In a bizarre season, the Sabres have lost nine straight at home. They’ll attempt to snap that streak against the reeling Flyers.
Six different goaltenders have started at least one game for Buffalo.
Defenseman Rasmus Dahlin had one goal and two assists against the Stars, but they allowed four power-play goals.
“We’ve just got to play simple and take away all the mistakes,” Dahlin said. “But, you know, young team. We learn and we’ve just got to build and build and build and we will get better, for sure.”
The Sabres have lost in a variety of ways, but head coach Don Granato pointed to effort as the reason for the one-goal defeat against the Stars.
“The net-front battles and wall battles, they outbattled us,” Granato said. “There’s no question that was the biggest difference in the game.”
The Sabres’ roster has been depleted, especially without Kyle Okposo and Zemgus Girgensons. All they can do is push forward with some makeshift lines.
“It’s a glimpse of a little bit of where we’re at, maybe the opportunity we have in front of us, too, when you see some the goals we did score with some young guys and really skilled guys,” Granato said. “Some really nice goals on our side. But when I talk about the end result of winning — in this case, not winning — you can see the challenge ahead for us as a younger group to win more of those battles. Some of it’s physical, some of it’s technical.”
–Field Level Media