Are the Wheels Coming off in Philly?

I have been following coach Hakstol's Flyers since he was named head coach of Philadelphia. Since I have the NHL Center Ice, I have watched a fair number of the Flyers games. Frankly, I think they've deserved a better fate in a few of these games. If it wasn't for bad luck, they'd have no luck at all.

Sam Carchidi, Philly.com – Clearly, rookie coach Dave Hakstol's system, which relies on controlling the neutral zone to create odd-man rushes, isn't working.

"We've got some real talented offensive players, guys who have real tricky shots, real heavy shots that are tough to stop," said goalie Steve Mason, who faces the shooters every day in practice. "I'm obviously not a forward or a defenseman, but I think if you've had trouble putting the puck in the net, it might tend to wear on you a little bit. I think in this situation, all it will take is one goal - maybe going off a shin pad or something - to start feeling good. There's too much talent for this to carry on for too long."

Since beating the Boston Bruins 5-4 in overtime, the Flyers have lost eight-of-10 games. Three of these games have gone to overtime. The Flyers have won just one of them, a shootout win against the Rangers.

From reading the stories from the Flyers beat writers, it would appear that Flyers are returning to the basics. We have seen this before.

Sam Carchidi, Philly.com – One day after an embarrassing 4-0 loss to Colorado, Flyers coach Dave Hakstol turned into a drill sergeant.

The rookie coach put his team through rigorous one-on-one and two-on-two battle drills at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. The one-on-ones started behind the net, while the two-on-twos began about 25 feet from the goalie.

There was lots of intensity, lots of contact, lots of players sprawled on the ice after hits.