PHILADELPHIA — The hockey season can be a long and winding road, but right now the Flyers have gone off-roading and toward a cliff.

Eleven days ago, the vibes were high following an emotional, high-intensity win against Cutter Gauthier and the Anaheim Ducks. The whole night, Xfinity Mobile Arena was rocking in front of a sellout crowd.

On Saturday, the Flyers were booed out of their own building before they head west to play the Vegas Golden Knights, Utah Mammoth mand Colorado Avalanche — two Stanley Cup contenders and a team in the playoff picture in the Western Conference — on a trip that could send them spiraling over.

The Flyers have now lost six straight, capped off by a dreadful 6-3 loss to a New York Rangers team that confirmed on Friday, with a letter to its fans, that they have officially driven off the cliff and essentially quit on their season.

“We sucked. Plain and simple. We can’t show up,” captain Sean Couturier said. “Down 3-1, 5 minutes in, 10 minutes in, whatever it was. We’ve got to be better.”

Can the Flyers be better? Can they pump the brakes on the slide?

From the outside, six straight losses is a concern, for sure; however, the longest losing streak of the season previously was three games, Dec. 11-15 — all in overtime — so the losses alone are not setting off alarm bells.

What is setting off loud sirens is how they are losing games.

Entering their game on Jan. 8 against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Flyers had allowed 2.80 goals on average across the first 41 games of the season. The past six? An eye-popping 5.17.

“Obviously, really frustrated,” defenseman Cam York said postgame, after being on the ice for three goals by the Rangers. “We’ve kind of just been shooting ourselves in the foot, making silly mistakes, I think. It’s correctable stuff, stuff that we haven’t done all year up to this point.”

Creeping back in are the odd-man rushes, the two-on-one goals, the three-on-one goals — the Rangers had both — the turnovers, the bad penalties that plagued them early in the year, and players not stepping up on the opposition.

The structure has broken down as guys are missing reads, attacking players who already have a Flyer on them, and giving time and space to the opposition. They are leaving opponents wide open on the weak side.

It does not make it easy on the goalies when they’re having to dive across the crease to stop pucks — a hallmark of what coach Rick Tocchet’s system is meant to prevent.

Is this who the Flyers really are? Was goalie Dan Vladař, who missed his second straight game on Saturday after being injured in the first period on Wednesday, hiding the Flyers’ flaws with his red-hot start?

“I‘ve been preaching since the start of the year, you cannot give weak side-goals up, so you protect the middle and let the goalie have it,” Tocchet said.

“Now what happens is, when you start getting goals side to side, what are the goalies doing? They’re just playing on their heels. ... But before, especially when Vladdy was here, he knew, most of the time the puck was going to be there and he was ready for it. He made those stops. I’m just using it as an example.”

There’s no denying that, beyond Vladař, the goaltending has been an issue. Aleksei Kolosov got the start on Saturday and allowed three goals on three shots — the fourth Flyers goal in team history to finish a game with a .000 save percentage, joining Ron Hextall, Ken Wregget, and Antero Niittymäki. Sam Ersson actually made several big-time stops against the Rangers when left out to dry, but ultimately gave up three goals on 25 shots.

“Tocc always says that it’s hard for anyone to make five, six perfect reads in a game. And when you’re not playing well, and you’re in the D zone, you’re having to make 15 reads, it makes the game a lot harder,” forward Travis Konecny said.

“You guys [the media] see it, when we’re playing good and things are buzzing, we’re getting through the neutral zone, we’re playing good offense, things just kind of happen naturally. You’re not really thinking out there. And then when you have to put your thinking cap on that many times in a game, it’s hard to be perfect. More times than not, there’s going to be a mistake somewhere in there.”

The question is now what? The power play is in a familiar but unwelcome spot, ranked dead last at 14.9% — allowing two short-handed goals. (Um, did Scott Laughton’s goal on Jan. 8 break the Flyers?). The penalty kill jumped ship a while ago and is at 61.9% during the losing streak.

And now they have injury woes with Vladař (undisclosed injury); defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen on injured reserve (upper-body injury) and not expected to head west; Bobby Brink on injured reserve (upper-body injury) but could draw back in on Monday against Vegas; Rodrigo Ābols got hurt during the game on Saturday (lower-body injury); and Tyson Foerster was ruled out for likely the season in mid-December.

Seventeen days ago, Flyers president Keith Jones sat down with The Philadelphia Inquirer and said that “the players will decide” what management will do as the March 6 trade deadline approaches. At the time, “the players have done a really good job of putting themselves in a position where we’re going to look to enhance what they’ve done,” he added.

Where do things stand now? There are 14 games between now and the trade deadline. Will they be sellers? Will they add?

As Jones said, the players will decide, so will they step on the brakes or hit the gas pedal?

Time will tell. That time is now.

Breakaways

The Flyers’ injury bug stung again just 6 minutes, 10 seconds into the game. Ābols appeared to get his right toe stuck in the ice along the boards in the offensive zone. His ankle buckled in the process, and he was unable to skate off the ice without help. He did not return with a lower-body injury, and Tocchet said postgame, “It’s not good.” ... The Flyers have four players slated to play at the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics and now three are hurt with Ābols (lower-body injury), Vladař (undisclosed) day-to-day, and, Ristolainen was placed on injured reserve with an upper-body injury after the game. ... Defenseman Hunter McDonald was officially recalled from Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League after the game but watched the loss from the press box.

Up next

The Flyers begin a three-game swing through what some are calling the new “Death Valley,” beginning Monday with a matchup against the Vegas Golden Knights.

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