Flyers jackhammer their way through rock bottom

Earlier today in South Philly, a surprising number of hearty fans risked their lives, endured horrific conditions and trudged through muck neck high. Oh yeah and it snowed a lot. That first sentence just refers to today's latest Flyers loss, a 2-1 barn-burner against the NY Rangers.

Once again the Flyers came out flat footed, gave up the first goal, allowed their opposition to dictate the pace until the third period and once again, dominating the final stanza due to an indifferent opponent just wasn't good enough. Remember Thursday's moral victory that came in the form of a 3-2 shootout loss to the Pens? Yeah, neither did the orange and black.

The Rangers jumped on the very delicate and very UN-inglourious home team early thanks to a Claude Giroux turnover, which Chris Drury spun around and flicked past Brian Boucher. The goal wasn't Boucher's finest hour, but once again he wasn't the reason for the loss. He stopped 22 of 24 shots while watching his teammates squander another good outing.

The Flyers actually answered back (GASP!) only three minutes later when Chris Pronger fired a hard wrister from the blue line on the power play. Giroux redeemed himself with an assist on the play, but it was the hard work of the returning Simon Gagne that made it possible. Gagne was a force all day, playing a remarkable 20:16 in his first game since Oct. 25 and registering 2 shots and 2 very suspicious PIMs which looked more like hard work to me, but I digress. Gags won the board battle that set up the goal and used his speed effectively all game. I guess no one told him that effort and hard work are no longer on the Flyers menu.

And surprise surprise, that was the only time the Flyers would find the back of the net for the rest of the day. Oh, they had their chances, but few were anything special and when they were Lundqvist was there to make the save. A lucky bounce off of defenseman Ryan Parent into his own net was the difference in this one. The fluky goal was eventually credited to Artem Anisimov.

That was the ball game folks. The Flyers out shot the Rangers 16-5 in the third period, but it was due more to the Rangers sitting on their one goal lead then to anything the orange and black did.

Props to the Flyers for shutting down superstar Marian Gaborik, who mustered only 1 shot and 2 PIMs in 20:57. Normally, shutting down the opposition's best player and only allowing 2 goals is the recipe (recipes?) for victory. That's not how the Flyers roll, at least not lately.

No more moral victories. No more "we played well and deserved a better fate." No more excuses. No more post game interviews where the players say all the right things but translate nothing to the ice. No more.

The only thing that counts from here on out is winning games. If you don't pick up the two points, the game is wasted. You would think pride would start to factor in somewhere. That at some point the guys would get tired of losing and being embarrassed every night.

I guess we haven't hit that point yet. We haven't sank quite so low. Or is it that this team doesn't have any pride? Maybe they just don't care, which would be a tremendous shame.

Those fans who braved ridiculous elements to go to today's game clearly care. It's too bad that the team they love couldn't demonstrate the same level of passion.