The Flyers have to get shots on and get to the net, as cliché as it is

It was hard to suppress the frustration by the end of an ugly weekend for the Philadelphia Flyers.

They lost both parts of a back-to-back at home, first with a 5-2 defeat to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday and then with a 2-1 slog against the NHL-worst Calgary Flames on Sunday.

The Leafs, always stacked with offensive talent, beat them with pinpoint shots that were opened up from clean, deceptive passes that generated looks to the net head-on.

The Flames, struggling as they are, took a couple of fortunate bounces that slipped by Aleksei Kolosov on a call-up start and then pushed the Flyers' skaters to the outside on a night where they weren't doing themselves many favors either.

They put 33 shots on Anthony Stolarz and the Leafs, but only Christian Dvorak's goal on a Toronto overcommitment to chase after the puck behind the net and Tyson Foerster's one-timer on an improvised offensive zone entry while on the power play were dangerous enough to find the back of the net. The pressure wasn't too severe otherwise.

Then, against Dustin Wolf and a Flames team that's been hemorrhaging goals about as much as they've been flailing to score them, the Flyers mustered just 18 shots.

That low of a volume is nowhere near good enough. It's hardly a sustainable way to successfully play either, and when it comes to games like Sunday night especially, it can get hard to watch.

And the frustration that stems from that can get hard to suppress.

"It was an ugly game," Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet said after the Calgary loss. "I feel bad for the fans. It wasn't a fun game to watch."

You just have to hope a down weekend like this – and their first back-to-back of the season, for what it's worth – is a blip and not a sign of a bigger problem.

But there is an early trend to keep an eye on.

The Flyers, considering their youth, the implementation of a new coach and system, a few new faces needing to get acclimated as key parts in their lineup (Trevor Zegras, Christian Dvorak, and then Dan Vladar in goal), and some initial injury setbacks (Cam York), have done pretty well for themselves through the season's first month.

This past weekend dropped them to 6-5-1 after 12 games played, but right before that, they were closing out October on a high note. They had won five of six games, and all at Xfinity Mobile Arena to establish a clear-cut home-ice advantage early into the season. Vladar was performing solidly between the pipes to look like one of the more shrewder signings of the offseason, Travis Sanheim and Jamie Drysdale were quietly piling up some monster minutes on the blue line, the Tyson Foerster-Noah Cates-Bobby Brink line carried their dominance right over from last season. Trevor Zegras jumped out of the gate at more than a point-per-game pace to rejuvenate his career following the summer trade in from Anaheim.

They have some early pieces working, that have shown to be equally promising signs of the team taking a tangible step forward on their rebuilding path.

But offensively, it hasn't equated to regular and constant pressure yet, which is perhaps standing as the first real dilemma of Tocchet's tenure behind the bench in Philadelphia.

As of Monday morning, the Flyers are generating an average of 23.5 shots per game, which is last in the NHL. Their 2.58 goals per game average, so far, sits at 26th.

They've kept afloat on that for the time being, but after Sunday night's loss, Tocchet was quick to identify that a lot of their offense in the early going has been generated through space that just won't be there anymore as the months progress.

"I think we're finding easy ice," Tocchet explained. "A lot of guys, even some of our best players, they want to play the easy ice, not the hard ice. That's the bottom line."

Kyle Ross/Imagn Images

Offensively, Christian Dvorak and the Flyers are operating from the outside looking in.

The answer, from Tocchet and the Flyers' view, is obvious, if not a hockey cliché: They need to be better at getting more shots on, and be better about getting more bodies to the front of the net when they do to hammer home those rebounds.

The players know it, and acknowledged postgame Sunday that it was the focus of a team meeting that morning. But then the loss to the Flames happened and showed that this might be a fix that's far easier said than done from the outside looking in – from directly on the ice for the team and to those watching from afar.

"We have guys that are really talented, pretty skilled, but we gotta find a way to get to the inside," captain Sean Couturier said.

So the Flyers have some work to do.

"We're gonna have to do a lot of net-front drills," Tocchet said. "Almost constantly. We're gonna have to get it kind of ingrained in these guys."

"It's hard to win in this league," Tocchet continued. "If you want to play in April and May and stuff like that, you gotta play hard hockey."

And now the Flyers are confronted with having to establish that habit on the fly.

After an ugly weekend like this, the frustration from that can get hard to suppress.

SIGN UP HERE to receive the PhillyVoice Sports newsletter

Follow Nick on Twitter: @itssnick

Follow Nick on Bluesky: @itssnick

Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports