Flyers in Dire Straits After Loss to Canucks; Farabee Struggles

Here we go again.

To their credit, the Philadelphia Flyers have overachieved this season. They rebounded from a 10-game losing streak in November, and had gotten back to “hockey .500” in January and February.

But this road trip out West has the potential to be a disaster after the Flyers (22-25-10) lost to lowly Vancouver (22-30-4) on Saturday night, 6-2.

They are now 0-2 on the four-game trip, and will be underdogs against Calgary (26-19-11) and Edmonton (30-19-7). Their overall losing streak could grow to six games.

Before the trip started, Vancouver looked like the most winnable of the four games.

The Flyers, however, couldn’t finish most of their opportunities and managed just two goals against Arturs Silovs, an inexperienced  21-year-old goalie, and a Vancouver defense that has the NHL’s second-worst defense. Silovs made his second career appearance — he was rocked in his first one — and stopped 35 of the Flyers’ 37 shots.

The Flyers played much better than they did in an ugly 6-2 loss Thursday in Seattle. Saturday’s game was closer before the Canucks sealed the victory with a pair of empty-net goals.

But that doesn’t take the sting out of losing against a team Philly needed to beat.

“We’ve got to find a way to make something happen,” said center Scott Laughton, whose team plays in Calgary at 4 p.m. Monday.

The Flyers have lost four straight, during which they have averaged two goals per game. They have just 11 goals over their last six games.

“We need to try to find some more offense consistently,” coach John Tortorella said.

Bright spot

The good news is that Travis Konecny is soaring again, looking like he did before he began pressing during a 13-game goal-less streak. He had two goals Thursday in Seattle, and had his best game in ages Saturday in Vancouver. Konecny had 13 shot attempts (seven on goal) and managed an assist.

Every time he was on the ice, he seemed to be in the middle of a glorious scoring chance.

“He’s begun to find his game, no question about that,” Tortorella said. “Certainly we knew it was going to come back. We just need to get other guys going, too.”

Joel Farabee, who turns 23 on Saturday, is one of those guys. The left winger had just one shot and played only 10:21 in the loss to Vancouver.  He has just nine goals and is goal-less in his last 16 games.

On Monday, the Flyers play a Calgary team that ended the New York Rangers’ seven-game winning streak Saturday, outlasting the Blueshirts, 3-2, in overtime.

Sam Ersson, who hasn’t started an NHL game since a 5-2 win over Anaheim on Jan. 17, could get the start for the Flyers. He is the third goalie in the Philadelphia Flyers’ history to start his career 5-0. Only one goalie in franchise history has started his career with more consecutive wins than Ersson: Bob Froese won his first eight decisions in 1982-83.

Breakaways

Ivan Provorov, who was minus-2 and had three giveaways Saturday, has three goals in 57 games and is on pace for a career-low four. He scored 17 goals in his second season. … After facing Calgary, the Flyers conclude their trip Tuesday in Edmonton. … Despte losses in Seattle and Vancouver, the Flyers are 7-3-1 in their last 11 road games. … Rasmus Ristolainen has 10 points over his last 13 games.