Flyers players taking responsibility for sluggish start

VOORHEES, N.J. – When the Flyers’ season-opening winless streak reached five games, there was perceptible rumbling and grumbling.

Another game without a victory officially raised the caution flag.

Finally, games 7 and 8 without a two-point outcome set off fire alarms from Allentown to Ardmore.

The temptation is to put much of the blame on head coach Rick Tocchet. He’s the one who makes all the personnel decisions on the ice. So why shouldn’t he be the first one held accountable?

There’s more to it than that when it comes to the Flyers’ 0-5-3 start. Players aren’t following instructions quite the way they did last spring, when they made a strong push to reach the playoffs and eliminated the Sidney Crosby-led Penguins in the first round.

After Wednesday’s practice at the Flyers Training Center, a couple players explained why it’s up to them rather than the coach to turn things around.

“At the end of the day, we’re all in this together,” defenseman Jamie Drysdale said. “It’s easy to go down a slippery slope, it’s obviously not fun for anybody. At the end of the day, everybody needs each other to get us out of this.”

Considering the positive note that last year how ended with, Drysdale admits he didn’t see this stumble out of the gate coming.

“We’re not where we need to be, can be,” he said. “That’s obviously on us, nobody else. We just have to build. It’s still really early but at the same time we’ve got to get it rolling.”

Drysdale said Tocchet’s message remains the same: Follow the gameplan, execute it and the rest will take care of itself.

“Ever since day one of last year, he has been great for us,” Drysdale said. “The message, the attitude, what he brings, how hard his staff works to get us the information. I think this is on us. We need to do each other a service as being better. We all owe it to each other, coaches, players, we’re all playing for the same team. Everyone needs to give the best they’ve got.”

Noah Cates is a big believer in Tocchet, perhaps because the coach has shown to be a big believer in him.

A strong line of communication between coach and player is what led to last year’s success.

“I think Toc is very open with us,” Cates said. “Talk about your game, whatever you want to talk about. He played so he kind of understands that. He trusts us.

“This is not a one-year thing. We’re listening, trying to apply it. We’ve just got to be better. It’s not the skill stuff, it’s kind of the nitty-gritty of hockey: Digging in, playing hard. Getting pucks out. That’s kind of what you see right now, it’s so important. Kind of what we’ve lacked a little bit.”

Like Drysdale, Cates said the players must share a big chunk of the blame. Nearly 10 percent of the season has elapsed, and the Flyers are the only NHL team yet to register a victory.

To his credit, Tocchet is willing to skate up to a player in practice and explain, one-on-one, what he’s doing right and wrong.

“He understands everyone’s game,” Cates said. “He’s great with that, talking to someone about their individual game.

“There’s really nothing about that (a lack of personal communication) with him. He’s awesome. Like I said, he played the game. He doesn’t get on you if things don’t work out.”

Tocchet made coaching stops in Tampa, Arizona and Vancouver before returning to Philadelphia to coach. He knows what works and what doesn’t.

“It’s important that I can’t be frustrated,” the coach said. “If they see me get frustrated – I have to be a teacher, keep teaching.”

Tocchet cited an example of working with Porter Martone Wednesday.

“The first couple drills, I was, ‘move your feet.’ Then the last 25 minutes of his practice I thought were really good,” Tocchet said. “That’s the stuff that he has to do to be effective. When he doesn’t move his feet, that’s when he gets in trouble.”

The coach doesn’t want the players to feel like they aren’t giving their best for him from an effort standpoint. He just wants to clean things up.

“Listen, it’s not fun when you lose the way we’ve been losing this year,” Tocchet said. “It’s been a bad two weeks. It (effort) shouldn’t be a once-in-a-while thing. The bottom line is it’s on me to figure it out.”