LOS ANGELES -- There have been worse stretches of hockey for the Flyers, but this one really left you with a sour taste.
After going 6-2-2 in December prior to the Christmas break, Dave Hakstol’s Flyers are now 0-3 since coming off that five-day break.
From two points down in the wild card chase to eight behind.
Not one thing was responsible for the Flyers' 2-1 loss to the Kings on Saturday afternoon (see Instant Replay), but a combination of the same as usual certainly was.
A sluggish start, turnovers on the breakout, poor penalty killing. For 40 minutes, the Flyers — trailing 2-0 — were stuck in the La Brea tar pits.
It was the first time since the 2003-04 season the Flyers came to the West Coast and didn’t collect at least one win.
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“I don’t why but a team like that, you can’t take two periods off and expect to win a hockey game,” Brayden Schenn, the lone Flyers goalscorer, said. “We made a push there in the third, but we need to play 60 minutes.”
Schenn's power-play goal ignited a strong third period, but it wasn’t enough. Not even in the final 34 seconds when the Flyers attacked with six players and forced goalie Jonathan Quick to work his magic in net, was it enough.
If you don’t play at the start against good teams, you can’t win at the end.
And at the start, Radko Gudas’ unforced pass to no one off the breakout saw Marian Gaborik intercept the puck inside the Flyers' blue line for a 3-on-1 at the net and an easy goal from Dwight King.
“We got to make sure we don’t turn the puck over at our blue line, especially early in the game,” goalie Michal Neuvirth, making his first start in six games, said. “Hockey is about mistakes. We did a couple in the first and it cost us the game.”
Gudas' pass should have seen a forward come back to get it, but there were nothing but black jerseys awaiting the Flyers at their blue line.
A terrible mistake and a critical goal just 7:33 into play.
“A bad turnover,” Gudas said. “It cost us the game, unfortunately. In the game, it’s hard sometimes for the forward to wait. Sometimes not everything goes like it’s written on the board. I was trying to make a hockey play.”
Hakstol took it further.
“Three turnovers on one shift leads to a goal,” he said. “That has to change. That has got to be on us. It’s absolutely on us to change the outcome.”
Just a brutal opening period for the Flyers, who made little progress — if any — game-to-game on the trip starting in Anaheim.
Shayne Gostisbehere had a terrible trip. He was in the penalty box far too often. His interference call late in the period gave the Kings their first power play and Drew Doughty made Neuvirth pay with a slapper from the left circle for a 2-0 lead.
Special teams factored in every game.
The Flyers' power-play units were 2 for 12, while the Flyers gave up six power-play goals in three games. They have yielded nine power-play tallies over their last seven games, and getting back to "Ghost," he was in the box for three power-play goals during the trip.
“I thought we were better tonight,” Hakstol said. “Mistakes the first couple of games. We got a couple good saves and I thought the PK was one step better and confident [today].”
Could have fooled us.
Hakstol went with seven defensemen because of Michael Del Zotto’s uncertainty with his left wrist and Mark Streit still getting up to speed after a six-week layoff. Streit played just 16:31. Matt Read was a healthy scratch. Hmm? R.J. Umberger came into the game having not scored a goal in 39 games — almost a half season.
The five days between games after the break certainly was a factor, but it doesn’t account for the season-long issue of poor starts.
“We haven’t been able to put together the same consistent 60-minute effort we had going into the break,” Hakstol said. “I’ll take the positive in that I felt like the last half of the hockey game we found that edge a little bit."
Del Zotto said the Flyers were a little “on their toes” in the first period (translation: nervous).
“They were aggressive and they were a tough team to stop,” he said of Los Angeles.
Wayne Simmonds, who set up Schenn, said there was one issue that plagued them this trip. There were numerous.
“It’s more of overall from everybody not allowing us to win these games,” Simmonds said. “Whatever it is, we have to stop it. We’re back down to .500 after being three games over.”
It doesn’t get easier with Winter Classic victor Montreal coming to town on Tuesday.