Philadelphia Flyers slowly finding groove on offense

Tuesday night’s game between the Philadelphia Flyers and Anaheim Ducks had an odd feel to it. The Flyers scored two goals in the first period and maintained that lead until the last five minutes of the second frame. Andrew Cogliano took a pass from Ryan Getzlaf and cut Philadelphia’s lead in half at that point.

Hope of a victory quickly began to fade as Anaheim came out flying in the third, and scored a goal 61 seconds in. If you’re looking for ways to deflate a team that has confidence issues, tear away at their two-goal lead by suddenly waking up and playing for six minutes.

That’s about all it took for the Ducks to knot the contest up before they went ahead for good with less than five minutes on the clock.

While the loss is likely tough to swallow, the Flyers are slowly putting together some positives worth building on. Oddly enough, none of them have anything to do with Claude Giroux, who has yet to score a goal this season. Still.

Vincent Lecavalier has come alive for the Flyers since returning from injury three

games ago. He has four goals and the Flyers have gone 2-1 since then. The former captain of the Tampa Bay Lightning has been leading the way in the shots department as well, and has fired the puck 15 times over the last three contests.

Scott Hartnell played his most engaging game of the season against the Ducks, racking up seven shots and a few hits. He’s still looking

for his first tally of the year, but the shots are coming. Mark Streit had gone seven games without a point before posting two on October 26. Wayne Simmonds has four points in his last six games.

These are all small but positive steps forward for the Flyers.

Now if Giroux and Jakub Voracek could only get going, Philadelphia might suddenly look like a solid team out on the ice. The pieces are slowly falling into place on offense though. Whether it’s coming along too slowly or not remains to be seen.