San Jose, Ca. - Broad Street is yet to produce a single bully this season as the Flyers seek to improve their 2-8-1 away record in San Jose Tuesday night.
They will play the second of a five-game road trip on which they are already a quick 0-1, and are winless in their last seven road outings.
Philadelphia (8-12-3, 19 pts) suffered a 5-2 decision to their arch-rival New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden Saturday after being shutout 3-0 by them at home the day before.
Cam Talbot stopped 57-of-57 shots fired against him in two games against the Flyers this year. Henrik Lundqvist stopped another 21-of-23 two days ago.
Rendering the Flyers 2-of-80 against the Rangers' goal this season.
They are currently on a 4-game losing streak overall, ending November 1-7-1, being outscored 15-4 in that stretch, a 4-3 victory over lowly Columbus their only positive mark.
"It's mental," head coach Craig Berube said this week. "Every guy has to man up and do their job. My job is to get these guys going in the right direction."
Puck control has been an area of concern for the Flyers, who in their Nov. 28th defeat to New York allowed a game-winning goal from the visitors after a costly turnover deep in their own zone.
Every Ranger touched the puck on the play after a turnover in the corner boards, taking a 3-on-1 rush to Steve Mason, who suffered the go-ahead shot to his right side.
"We don't skate," Jakub Voracek said. "We are slower everywhere. That's the problem."
The right-winger is one of few bright spots for the Flyers. His 32 points (9 goals, 23 assists) rank second in the game behind Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby, with whom he has enjoyed the points-lead for much of the season.
"There's only one way to figure it out, and that's together," forward Wayne Simmonds said this week. "If you start abandoning guys now and don't have everyone supportive, then it's going to keep going the wrong way."
A wrong way that includes the second-worst penalty kill in hockey (73.8 pct). During their sour November campaign, the Flyers have stopped only 65.7 percent of shots a man down, a number that falls to 62.2 percent on the road.
Which may spell trouble against the Sharks' 4th-best power play (23.8 pct).
San Jose (11-10-4, 26 pts) defeated Anaheim 6-4 three nights ago after suffering their own four-game losing streak. Logan Couture notched two goals after waking up that morning in the hospital with an illness.
"We needed it," Couture said afterwards. He notched a shorthanded goal on a breakaway and his 10 goals this year shares the team's best scoring mark. The center has also secured five straight contests with a point earned.
And has scored 3 goals in the Sharks' last two meetings with Philadelphia.
"We haven't been scoring as many goals, so it was good to find some way to score."
They jumped out to a 5-1 second period lead before allowing three consecutive goals.
Joe Thornton leads the team with 21 points in 25 games, (7 goals, 14 assists) and recorded an assist on Joe Pavelski's power-play goal in victory over the Ducks.
And he is enjoying a 12-game points streak against the Flyers with 17 points in that time.
But San Jose has gone only 2-5-2 in their last 7 outings, during which they scored 14 goals.
"We've got to put something together," Couture said after their win Saturday. "It's one game, we've played one game well before, then played five [bad] ones, so we've got to figure it out and put some good games together."
Flyers starting goalie Steve Mason is winless in his last four starts, and Ray Emery in relief has been downed in his last three appearances, with a 4.35 goals-against average.
San Jose is 9-2-2 this season when scoring first.
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