LOS ANGELES -- What is it about the Flyers' inability to come off a four, five and six-day layoffs and not recover in a game or two?
Everything that was going to well at the Christmas break collapsed during eight days on the West Coast, as the Flyers lost to the Ducks, the Sharks and to the Kings, 2-1, Saturday at the Staples Center (see game story).
It was the first time since 2003-04 the Flyers didn’t post a win when playing all three teams out here.
Dave Hakstol’s club had 18 points in 12 games prior to the break. In December alone, the Flyers were 6-2-2 before Christmas.
“You don’t want to use it as an excuse because the rest of the league got the break, too,” Brayden Schenn said. “For us, not the California trip we wanted but we’ll have a good test coming up in a few days against Montreal.”
The Flyers will have to be several degrees better or the Canadiens, who were dominant against Boston in the Winter Classic, is going to blow them out.
“The same thing happened last year. We were hot going into Christmas,” Schenn said. “Same thing this year. I don’t have that answer for it.”
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Last season, the Flyers went into Christmas with seven points in eight games under Craig Berube. They came out of the break losing five in succession, garnering one point in overtime.
They didn’t register a point on this trip.
How does that happen?
“Sometimes your mind just wanders,” Wayne Simmonds said. “You get away from the game before the break, we were playing a lot of hockey and we were into it. Dialed in. It shouldn’t be an excuse, but we got to get our minds back into it and be sharper.”
The Flyers were deadly dull during far too many periods on this road trip. They had two days between losing in San Jose and this game in L.A. and didn’t show up mentally until the third period.
“We got to bear down,” defenseman Radko Gudas said “We got to bear down. Three [losses] in a row is not the spot we want to be. Next game is a couple nights. We got to be ready."
Gudas was responsible for the Kings' first goal, as his errant pass to no one off a breakout in the first period saw Dwight King score right away.
Hakstol admitted he didn’t like the two-day offs between games twice during this trip.
“In a perfect world, you’d like to play a little more often if you’re on the road for eight days,” he said. “It’s the quirks of the schedule.”
Whatever it was, the Flyers were never as dialed-in here as they were back home prior to Christmas. They lost ground in the wild card race from two points behind to eight.
“We can’t use the break as an excuse,” Michael Del Zotto said. “We were playing great hockey and it proves we can play great hockey for long stretches. We got to get back to that.
“You have to realize it’s your job to come to work every single day. Whether you have a three-day or five-day break or whatever it is — it doesn’t matter. You got to come to work and hold yourself accountable. Do whatever it takes to help the team win.”