EDMONTON, Alberta - Take away all the hype surrounding the Brandon Manning-Connor McDavid saga, what are the Flyers left with on Friday?
Well, it's not good.
Lost in translation from Thursday's 6-3 Oilers spill is the numbing reality that for the first time in eight games, Dave Hakstol's team was a mess.
Defensively, the Flyers were scrambling in their own end, two steps behind the play. Their forwards were lost somewhere on the Macleod Trail leaving Calgary, trying to backcheck and goalie Michal Neuvirth looked sub-par from the get-go.
That's a recipe for disaster and a blowout loss, which is what happened eight games ago in Carolina when the Flyers were crushed 5-1.
"That second period there, we fell asleep, well not asleep, but they got some chances and they capitalized on them," offered Brayden Schenn. "In the third, we made a push, but weren't able to come back."
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And the cherry on top? The Flyers have now lost five of their last six games and finally been eclipsed by a team behind them.
"We needed a much better job from our team, that's for sure," Radko Gudas said.
Hakstol went with seven defensemen in the Oilers' loss to get Michael Del Zotto back in the lineup but it backfired when Jordan Weal went down with an upper body injury. Weal said he was "OK" after the game.
That left 10 forwards to play the remainder of the game against one of the fastest clubs in the league. Truth is, the Flyers couldn't match the Oilers' speed. Players were forced to double shift which is why Schenn, for instance, had a season-high 22:35 in ice time.
"The guys did a good job, we battled hard and, obviously, we didn't get the outcome we wanted," Wayne Simmonds said. "We kept going and pushing. We didn't give up."
For months now, the Flyers have looked over their shoulders at a struggling Islanders club, which appeared as a vague shape in their rearview mirror.
Well, the Isles' win over the Rangers on the same night the Flyers lost here, moved them ahead of the Flyers in the Metro Division to fifth place, dropping the Flyers (61 points) to sixth in the division and 10th overall in the East.
Hakstol's club remains two points behind Toronto in the second wild card spot, but the Islanders, Florida and even Buffalo are right with them.
The Isles have 62 points with two games in hand. The Panthers have 60 points with three games in hand. Buffalo has 60 points, but has played the same number of games (58) as the Flyers.
It would be an understatement to say the playoffs are quickly fading from the Flyers' list of possibilities.
One of the inherent advantages of playing teams in the West is you can collect points with a win without having to worry about a head-to-head loss because there's no direct impact within your division.
There is, however, the indirect effect of a loss to the Western club when your division foes are all winning games and that's what has happened on this trip.
"It's not much consolation because we didn't get the two points," Simmonds said. "We've got to start over and figure things again for Vancouver."
Given how things have gone lately, there's little to grasp in the Flyers' overall play that would suggest they'll somehow salvage two points on Sunday night in Vancouver against the Canucks.
