Flyers Notes: One-goal losses keep piling up

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There have been so many ways the Flyers have lost one-goal games this season.

Thursday’s 2-1 shootout loss to the Florida Panthers represented the 12th one-goal loss (see game recap).

In five of those, the Flyers' beleaguered penalty kill units gave up a total of eight power-play goals. Yeah, the PK is a huge reason for lost points in one-goal games.

That’s 10 lost points right there.

The other? The shootout. The Flyers are now 0-5 in shootouts.

It has become a dreaded nightmare, so much so that you can see a heightened sense of urgency for the Flyers to win in overtime and then a noticeable drop in confidence once they step onto the ice for the shootout.

The shootout is like a death knell.

“We gotta find a way to win them. We’re not scoring enough, we’re not stopping enough,” goalie Steve Mason said. “We had two opportunities to win it. We have to find a way to bear down on these things.

“That’s five shootouts we’ve lost this year. That’s five points we’ve left out there. Five points that would have put us in the playoffs. It makes a difference.”

Even with earning a point in the loss, the Flyers fell another point behind in the playoff picture.

They are eight points out of third place in the Metropolitan Division thanks to Washington’s overtime win over Columbus.

Did we mention four Flyers fumbled the puck during the shootout, too?

“It’s all about confidence,” Mark Streit said. “If you’re lacking confidence, it obviously makes a huge difference. It’s cost us a lot of points. It’s tough.

“Guys go out there and try their best. Tonight a few pucks flipped up. It’s a tough sport. But it’s huge points. We got to get better at it.”

Jakub Voracek was the only Flyer to score in the shootout.

Why is this such an arduous task for this team?

“You know, I don’t even know to be honest with you,” Voracek said. “We were at that break for shootouts, but at least we took it to the sixth round. That’s good news.”

The Flyers have lost 10 shootouts in succession. They also have the dubious distinction of owning the NHL’s worst lifetime record in this category: 27-56.

“Sometimes the puck goes in and sometimes it doesn’t,” Voracek said. “[Roberto] Luongo was good, he made a huge save in overtime. Shootout is 50/50 on a paper, but for us I think it’s 10 to 90.”

Lecavalier
Vinny Lecavalier was back in the lineup after seven games as a scratch. He played right wing on Pierre Edouard-Bellemare’s line with Zac Rinaldo.

That line was on the ice for Scottie Upshall’s goal in the first period -- an unfortunate bounce. So Lecavalier’s minus-1 for the game is misleading.

That said, he played 11:48, yet did not register a shot on goal.

Loose pucks
• Another offensive streak ended. The Flyers had the NHL’s longest streak of consecutive games -- eight -- with a power-play goal. They were 0 for 1.

• Claude Giroux was unbeatable on faceoffs, winning 20 of 24 draws -- 83 percent.

• Rinaldo led the team with seven hits. He played 9:58.

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