from Sam Donnellon of the Philadelphia Daily News,

There are a slew of oddities about this unfulfilling season. The Flyers have one of the best power plays in the NHL and just about the worst penalty kill. Their Achilles' is said to be a subpar defense, yet this team has been undone by a lack of secondary scoring as often as it has by its defense, even amid the seasonlong shuffling of the blue line because of injury.

It all points to a rudderless ship. And yet their leaders are four guys who are the proverbial run-through-the-wall types, guys who not only have resisted any prodding to second-guess the second-year coach, but also often sound like his defense attorneys.

Instead, they sound as confused as anybody, such as when Streit said after Thursday's 4-0 Vancouver loss: "I know we had a rough loss Wednesday night, but there shouldn't be a reason to hang our heads or lose our sense of urgency out there. After those two goals, it felt like we let each other down. We got too passive. We let them have the puck and we let them play way too much.

"I don't really have an answer. It's tough to explain. I don't know why we stopped playing. There is no reason, with the team we have."

Except . . . leadership?

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