from Frank Seravalli of the Philadelphia Daily News,

Two games do not a season make for the Flyers. Hey, even Peter Laviolette still had a job at this point last year.

But the Flyers' most apparent fault through the first two sprints of this 82-game marathon is exactly what most feared it would be: a shoddy defense corps that is both too big and too slow to keep up in today's NHL.

With a career-worst minus-5 outing,(Luke) Schenn was just the poster boy. His partner in crime, Michael Del Zotto, was right behind him as a minus-4. That was against a Devils team, albeit which is a bit stronger offensively, that finished 25th in the league in goals last year.

The kicker is that last night was just a preview of perhaps the next month to come, now that general manager Ron Hextall announced Braydon Coburn is expected to miss a substantial amount of time with an undisclosed injury....

Through two games, with the same record as last season, there is a different feel around the Flyers. It is not one of lifelessness, or going through the motions, which cost Laviolette his job. Rather, it is of one aware of the problem but seemingly without answer.

"Last year, we were getting completely outfoxed," Simmonds said. "This year, obviously we've had a couple slow starts. But throughout the game, we're working hard, we're battling back, we're doing some good things."

Just not enough to cover up the bad things.

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