Philadelphia Flyers Shut Out Again; How Bad is the Offense?

Normally, I wouldn't make a big deal of a team getting shut out. Sometimes you just don't play the kind of game that you want to and you can't score.

However, the Flyers are having a little bit more than scoring trouble. The 2-0 loss to the Senators on Thursday night is the third time they have been shut out in the last six games. They suffered losses a few games ago to the Thrashers and Canucks.

Unlike a lot of other people, I think the Flyers' scoring has just become inconsistent. There are a lot of people who look at these numbers and think about how terrible of an offense the Flyers have. I don't.

People have been ignoring two very crucial things about the Philly offense. The first is how well the offense was playing in the beginning of the season and the second is the game against the Islanders on Tuesday.

I counted four games in October where the Flyers scored five or more goals and they scored six against the Islanders on Tuesday night. This tells me that the Flyers have a lot of scoring capability and that the scoring capability is still there.

I don't really know what the difference is between October and now. Injuries to Gagne, Powe, and Betts may have a little bit to do with it, but none of them were having a strong enough year to make a huge difference. Out of those three players, Powe was being the most productive with six goals, but no assists.

Gagne hasn't played enough games for me to tell what kind of a year he's having. We'll see how much of a difference he makes pretty soon.

My guess is that the Flyers are just in an offensive slump. They started to settle down in late November and struggled a little bit defensively.

However, I think the offense is going to come back. They have some great talent in Richards, Carter, and Hartnell. Although, it would help if they got a few more bounces to go their way as well.

Really, I think the Flyers have too many goal scorers on their team to not have a good offense. Fans just need to be patient with the offense, because it will come back. Eventually, they'll start to put more pucks in the net and win more games.

More of my opinions at Tips for Hockey