Slow starts killing Flyers

SAN JOSE, Calif. - If the Flyers are going to end their seven-game road losing streak Tuesday in San Jose, they might want to do something unusual.

Such as scoring first.

The Flyers have failed to score first in all 11 road games this season.

Overall, they are 5-0-1 when they score the game's first goal, and 3-12-2 when they don't.

The Flyers will also have stops in Anaheim on Wednesday and in Los Angeles on Saturday, and the five-game trip, which started with a 5-2 loss to the Rangers in Madison Square Garden last Saturday, will end in Columbus next Tuesday.

The Flyers and Sharks are both scuffling. The Flyers have lost eight of their last nine, while San Jose has dropped four of its last five.

The teams split their two games last season, with each winning on the road.

Steve Mason and San Jose's Antti Niemi are expected to be the starting goalies. Mason is 4-8-2 with a 2.76 GAA and .916 save percentage. Niemi, who was just fair - but better than Michael Leighton - when he helped Chicago win the Stanley Cup in the 2010 Finals against the Flyers, is 8-7-3 with a 2.57 GAA and .914 save percentage.

The Sharks, who are just 3-4-2 at home, are led by Logan Couture (21 points), Joe Thornton (21), Joe Pavelski (20), and Patrick Marleau (20).

The Flyers, 2-8-1 on the road, have gotten great production from Jake Voracek (32 points) and Claude Giroux (27) - and little from anyone else. Club chairman Ed Snider bristled about the lack of secondary scoring on Tuesday afternoon.

McGinn update. Left winger Tye McGinn, traded by the Flyers last July for a third-round pick in 2015, has no goals and two assists in 15 games with San Jose. He had 20 goals last season for the Phantoms.

Comparisons. Thornton (age 35) and Marleau (35) have combined for 41 points, while the Flyers' Vinny Lecavalier (age 34) and R.J. Umberger (32) have combined for nine points.

Lecavalier will be a healthy scratch Tuesday, and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare is expected to return to the lineup.

Breakaways. The Flyers are 4-2-1 against Western Conference teams……Since 2002, the Sharks are 12-1-2 against the Flyers, including a 6-1-1 mark in San Jose.

Follow Sam Carchidi on Twitter @BroadStBull.