The Flyers set an ugly franchise record Sunday night.<\/p>\n
The club lost its seventh straight with a 4-1 decision to the defending champion Hurricanes at Xfinity Mobile Arena. It marked the longest losing streak to start a season in the organization’s history.<\/p>\n
“It’s frustrating, especially to start the year,” Sean Couturier said. “We’re out of sync right now, there are not really any excuses, honestly. We’re just not winning battles. We’ve just got to be better overall. I don’t know, it’s still early in the year, obviously we have some catch-up to do.<\/p>\n
“But we’ve got to take it one game at a time, even one shift at a time. Just focus on winning each shift, finding a way to put that together for 60 minutes and get a win. And then hopefully build our confidence.”<\/p>\n
Rick Tocchet’s club is 0-5-2 and has been outscored 28-8 in this perplexing start. The Flyers are just five months removed from last season’s second-round playoff run<\/a>. Right now, they’re one of three NHL teams without a win.<\/p>\n “Sure, as a coach or a player, you hate to hear the outside noise, but that’s part of the whole deal,” Tocchet said before the game. “That’s the business we’re in, it comes with the territory. We owe the fans a better product on the ice and we haven’t given it to them yet. When that doesn’t happen, it’s on me, I’ve got to take the blame on that.”<\/p>\n There were some faint “fire Tocchet” chants in the third period. Prior to the game, Tocchet was asked about, as the head coach, embracing pressure in times like these.<\/p>\n “You’ve just got to be confident in what you’re doing,” Tocchet said of his mindset. “Obviously when things don’t go well, you look at the head coach. It’s my responsibility. So I’ve got to figure ways to make sure I can keep the players comfortable, where it doesn’t affect their play. Give them a couple of things tonight, don’t give them a lot of stuff, concentrate on two things.”<\/p>\n When asked about Tocchet after the loss, Trevor Zegras defended his coach.<\/p>\n “Fully behind Tocc,” Zegras said. “He’s an amazing person, he’s an amazing coach, he does so many little things for us behind the scenes. We’re just a little disappointed with how these games are going. We’ve got the guys in the room to turn this thing around. This will be a great learning experience in the future.”<\/p>\n Carolina improved to 5-1-1. It has been a challenging stretch for the Flyers. The combined record of their opponents so far is 22-9-2. Still, though, you’d expect the Flyers to have a win and be scoring much more. They just haven’t looked at all like the team from last season. It has been concerning.<\/p>\n “Just taking it a day at a time, a game at a time,” Christian Dvorak said when asked about the keys to overcoming the losing streak. “It’s just stacking shifts together. We showed a bit of that tonight. I think if we continue to do more of that, then you set up your linemates for the next shift and they’ll be in a good spot. That’s how we’ve got to do it. We’re not going to win eight games in one day. We’ve got to take it a game at a time. That’s what’s going to get us out of this rut.”<\/p>\n \u2022 Joseph Woll denied 26 of 30 shots.<\/p>\n The Hurricanes put three on him in the middle stanza. They tacked on another in the third period.<\/p>\n Dvorak trimmed the Flyers’ deficit to 2-1 with a redirection in the second period. But the Flyers quickly lost the momentum when Sebastian Aho scored about a minute and a half later.<\/p>\n “We were coming, it was 2-1 and the third goal was obviously a dejecting goal,” Tocchet said. “But they’re all avoidable. When there’s a moment we needed it, you’ve got to make that play or be in the spot to protect that middle. And we just kind of lose our focus for whatever reason.”<\/p>\n Pyotr Kochetkov beat the Flyers for the second time this season. He stopped 18 of 19 shots Sunday night.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Flyers Postgame Live crew dissects a 4-1 loss to the Hurricanes on Sunday night.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n