from Sam Carchidi of the Philadelphia Inquirer,

Your first impulse is that the Flyers, losers of eight of their last nine games, can't get any lower.

Then you quickly realize they are playing their next four games on the road, where they have lost seven straight, and you wonder whether Craig Berube will still be the coach when the team plays its next game at the Wells Fargo Center on Dec. 11 - or whether general manager Ron Hextall has Dan Bylsma on his speed dial.

To be fair, Berube deserves only a little bit of the blame. His team has no identity, has played mostly lifeless hockey, and he has steadfastly refused to bench slow-moving veterans R.J. Umberger (without a point in the last 16 games) or Vinny Lecavalier (goalless in the last 12 games) for an entire game and send a message: Produce or sit.

You can argue that the Flyers have not been ready at the start of games, having allowed the first goal in 17 of 23 contests. The Flyers have played 11 road games and, inexplicably, have failed to score first in any of them.

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