Injuries aside, Flyers were too inconsistent this season

Second in a five-part series

The Flyers had their share of key injuries this season, but they did not have the depth to overcome them.

Other teams did. Playoff-bound Ottawa, for instance, played without top forwards Jason Spezza and Milan Michalek for most of the season, along with standout defenseman Erik Karlsson.

"Injuries happen through the course of the year, and it's all a part of it," Flyers coach Peter Laviolette said Sunday.

"There are obstacles and all teams face them, and when we faced them, we didn't face them very well."

Blame the Flyers' poor season on a lack of reinforcements. Blame it on a lack of urgency when the games really mattered.

Fact is, even when the Flyers were at full strength or close to it, they were too inconsistent. For whatever reason, they did not adjust to the lockout-shortened, 48-game schedule. Playing three or four games a week, they never got into a rhythm.

Especially in the first couple of weeks of the season. The Flyers lost six of their first eight games and never fully recovered.

Later in the season, the Flyers were decimated by injuries to their defense. Braydon Coburn, Andrej Meszaros, and Nick Grossmann were among those sidelined while the Flyers were still in playoff contention.

But during their season-defining 2-6 start, the defense was relatively healthy - and goalie Ilya Bryzgalov was at the top of his game.

The offense missed Scott Hartnell, who suffered a broken foot in the third game, a 3-0 loss in New Jersey that left the Flyers 0-3 for the third time in franchise history.

Hartnell missed 16 games and never regained the form that produced a career-high 37 goals last season.

It was a strange year, beginning with the lockout, Hartnell said.

"You sit around for a few months, you get disheartened and frustrated. Your workouts aren't great," he said. "When the season got rolling, it was kind of a slow start, and it kind of snowballed from there."

The Flyers went through long stretches in which they failed to play 60 solid minutes in games.

Despite their inconsistent play, the Flyers won four straight and improved to 17-17-3 after a 5-3 win in Toronto on April 4. They scored a total of 18 goals in those four victories and moved to within two points of the New York Rangers for eighth place.

Then their offense collapsed.

The Flyers lost their next four games, scoring a total of three goals in that span and falling out of the Eastern Conference playoff race.

Again, injuries cannot be used as a crutch. The Flyers had basically the same lineup that won four straight late-season games as the one that immediately lost four in a row. (The injured Max Talbot missed the last six games in that eight-game span.)

"I think this is a good hockey team," Laviolette said. "We're young and we will continue to learn, and through the course of the summer, we have a chance to heal up some of the injuries we have. . . . We'll come back a year older and a year wiser, and hopefully start in a different direction than we did this season."