Flyers just not very good

HOCKEY IS A simple game, so let's keep this really simple:

They're not going to make it this time.

That's what your eyes tell you, even amid the better games played by the Flyers in this shortened, game-compacted season. There are too many missing parts and too many meshing ones to believe that this group, as assembled today, will find its identity in time to even reach the playoffs, never mind make a run.

One day after what should have been a springboard road victory over Pittsburgh, the Flyers began a five-game homestand with a sleep-inducing, 5-2 loss to Florida. They did this despite what Danny Briere said was a daylong discussion of the perils of taking a team riding a five-game losing streak too lightly, amid discussions of their past sins in these instances and a collective vow to learn from them.

"Team comes in here that's lost five straight, you don't want to be the slump-buster," Mike Knuble said. "That makes it even more annoying."

The Flyers are now 2-7-1 this season when opponents score first. This continues a trend set last year, when they surrendered the first goal in 46 of their 82 games. When the lineup included Jaromir Jagr, Scott Hartnell James van Riemsdyk and Matt Read, this was less of a problem than it has become this season. The Flyers won 20 of those games.

The personnel changes of the offseason, bringing in bigger but slower defensemen to avoid the score-athons of a year ago, has not been a success. With the five goals allowed to Florida in the listless loss, the Flyers passed the Panthers in goals allowed and are within striking distance of the Islanders for first in the Eastern Conference in that dubious category.

Buffalo, right up there with the Flyers in goals allowed despite a healthy Ryan Miller, fired their coach of 15 seasons, Lindy Ruff, on Wednesday, after a 2-1 home loss to Winnipeg.

"It was evident to me that we were searching for answers to too many questions," Sabres general manager Darcy Regier said. "I think we were making some strides, but in the end, for every two steps forward, it was one step back, and sometimes not that."

Hmm. Why does that sound familiar? Oh, right. That's what's happening here too.

During an interview on Comcast SportsNet's "Daily News Live" before the game, I asked Briere if he could explain how a team so aware of what was at stake could start so many of its games so flat. If records for this stuff were kept, Peter Laviolette had to set one last season for timeouts used in the first period, and he is headed for the short-season mark this year as well.

Anyway, Briere said it was a hard thing to figure, that in Pittsburgh it was about getting overwhelmed by the energy emanated by Penguins fans and the team itself. There may be merit to that, taken as an isolated example. But as Thursday and last season underlined, this is not an isolated problem.

Is it a systematic one? Or it is about personnel? In dismissing Ruff, Regier disputed the idea that Ruff had lost the room. "Communication has never been better, so there were huge strides he had done in that regard," Regier said. "Unfortunately, it didn't translate to the ice."

To a man, it seems, players both comprehend and enjoy playing Laviolette's aggressive system, even the tapered-down version installed this season. This current version is supposed to trudge up the ice as a unit, defend its zone better than a year ago. Yet, of Florida's first three goals, two came via breakaway and the other was a blatant case of missed coverage.

"Tonight we wanted to do the right thing and get ourselves involved right from the get-go," Briere said. "But we made some bad mistakes that we usually don't make that cost us. Physically, you can get yourself motivated and get going. I really think we were trying to get there tonight. But mentally, maybe we weren't as sharp as we usually are."

It would be one thing if the second-year players who showed promise in smaller roles last season were the cause of this. Then you could talk about experience and improvement. But with the exception of Sean Couturier, who turned 20 in December, they have handled the added pressure. Brayden Schenn has 14 points. Read, now sidelined for 6 weeks with a rib injury, had 13 points.

It would be one thing if this was a goalie thing. It's not. Ilya Bryzgalov might not have been his sharpest in the two games since Monday's shutout of the Islanders, but he's hardly the root of their uneven play.

No, this is about personnel, about the plain and simple truth that these Flyers have all the birthmarks of mediocrity. They don't finish very well, and their mistakes are too often eye-shielding. They score too few goals and they allow too many.

Hockey's a simple game. And the simple truth right now is that this team just isn't good.

On Twitter: @samdonnellon

Columns: philly.com/

SamDonnellon