Following the Philadelphia Flyers 6-3 loss to the Buffalo Sabres yesterday, Rasmus Ristolainen shared some honest words for the collective lack of effort from the Flyers, a team that has now lost 11 straight games, with a 0-8-3 record during that span.

Ristolainen: We got outworked, from the first shift of the game. That can’t happen. …We got some energy but our PK didn’t do the job .

— Bill Meltzer (@billmeltzer) January 22, 2022

Ristolainen was asked about the 4th Sabres goal.

“Which one was the fourth goal?” Later adds, “Sorry, they scored so many goals today, I don’t remember (all of) them.”

— Bill Meltzer (@billmeltzer) January 22, 2022

Ristolainen: “Every night, you should at least bring everything so you don’t get outworked.”

— Bill Meltzer (@billmeltzer) January 22, 2022

You can feel the frustration through the tweet, and I wholeheartedly agree. Not only has Philadelphia lost 11 straight games, but we all remember when they lost 10 straight games earlier this season. Honestly, it’s not the loses alone that make it disheartening, it’s the way they roll over and quit.

The Flyers have been outscored 43-22 in their most recent 11-game meltdown. After Alain Vigneault started the season at 8-10-4, Mike Yeo took over on December 6th, and has led this team to a 5-10-4 record. This is a team that started 6-2-2 over their first 10 games before collapsing into 7-18-16 with a -43 goal differential in the following 31 games.

COVID-19 issues and injuries all contributed to never seeing this lineup at full-strength. Joel Farabee (upper body), Kevin Hayes (abdominal), Ryan Ellis (lower body), Sean Couturier (upper boday), and more fill a laundry lost of players that are currently injured. It’s no excuse, but it’s the truth of it.

With that being said every team has to deal with these problems and I feel that this team would’ve wilted away fully healthy as well.

They lack any semblance of identity or having a good culture. It’s the same “we need to have a good start” speech before every single game and they’re promptly down 3-0 after the first. The Flyers don’t even believe themselves when they speak, and you can see it by the way they perform on the ice.

You can go down the list of highly paid players that currently aren’t producing for the team. It’s not even worth naming names, just go down the list. When half of your lineup is waiver wire additions, you need your top talent to produce in big spots.

The powerplay is atrocious, they blow every lead they have, and offensive production is a rarity. It’s a brutal watch for even the die-hard fans.

So here we are, out of the playoffs by January. The Flyers have clearly packed it in so any kind of blind optimism at this point seems like a waste of energy.

Philadelphia is now a loss and a win from the Sabres and Devils away from dropping down to the fifth worst team in the league. I suppose it is time to study this draft religiously and patiently await the trade deadline.

Mandatory Credit: Philadelphia Flyers