5 Reasons Why Philadelphia Flyers Won't Win This Season Without Major Changes

The Philadelphia Flyers are enduring a 1-7-1 slump and are now heading out west to take on some of the league's tougher opponents. While most NHL teams are never as bad as they are while they are on a losing streak, this year's Flyers team cannot make the playoffs as it is presently constituted. Here is a look at the top five reasons the Flyers need major changes if they hope to have a chance to be a winning team this season.

On paper, the Flyers were considered one of the more talented offensive teams in the league this season. The team, as it is presently constituted, cannot hope to qualify for the playoffs this season. Major changes are needed if the team hopes to salvage this season.

As of now, owner Ed Snider said he is not ready to strip this team down and begin a full rebuild. "I haven't given up on this year," Snider told Sam Carchidi of The Philadelphia Inquirer. "We're not the first team to go through a bad situation for a period of time. There's three-quarters of the season left, so ask me that in a couple months."

This list is based on the Flyers' performance so far this season, the talent available on the NHL and at the AHL level and the ability of general manager Ron Hextall to make changes via trade or otherwise to this team this year.

Feel free to comment on any item on this list or to add one of your own that you feel belongs here. As always, please indicate why you feel the way you do.

The salary cap and some of the bad contracts handed out by the Flyers organization in recent years continue to haunt this team and make changes difficult.

According to CapGeek.com, the Flyers are projected to have no cap room moving forward and at the present time, they have roughly $1.17 million to work with at the trade deadline.

To complicate matters even more, the Flyers have several players with no-movement clauses in their contracts. That means the player must approve any proposed trade or the deal cannot go through.

Among those players with veto power over any trade are Vincent Lecavalier, R.J. Umberger, Braydon Coburn, Luke Schenn and Nicklas Grossmann. All of those players have multiple years left on their deals and have salaries that are well above what their present on-ice production would justify.

This does two things: It makes all of these players very difficult to trade and it means if Hextall is able to make a deal for them, he will not get full value in return.

It also means the Flyers may be stuck with these players for a lot longer than they'd like to keep them for. This creates an obstacle to team improvement that may take some time to resolve.

Time and a rising salary cap may eventually ease this problem, but until some of these big and undeserved contracts expire, the Flyers will be hurt by these big contracts handed out by past general managers.

The Flyers poor penalty killing has been a major reason the team is just 1-7-1 in their last nine games.

As of December 1, the Flyers are dead last in the NHL with a 73.8 percent success rate.

During the recent nine-game slump, the PK has allowed 12 goals, more than one goal-per-game and not good enough to allow the team to win consistently.

The Flyers penalty killers have not eliminated the passing lanes, have given opposing players too much room to operate with and have often screened their own goalies.

Head coach Craig Berube has said his club is simply not aggressive enough when they are a man down. "Just below the goal line, we’re not aggressive enough. We've got to get skating. Move our feet, get on people, have heavy sticks," Berube told Tim Panaccio of CSNPhilly.com. "Penalty killing is a commitment. You've got to block shots and do all the little things desperately at times, off a faceoff or break a play up."

Defenseman Andrew MacDonald also has a theory as to what is wrong with the penalty kill. "Penalty kill is collectively about a unit," MacDonald told Dave Isaac of The Delaware Courier-Post. "It's never gonna be about just one guy. Obviously everyone has to be on the same page and right now we're kind of a little bit off."

No team ranked last in the league in penalty killing has qualified for the playoffs in the 21st century. Whether the Flyers need to change their strategy and approach or change the players they send out on the penalty kill, major improvement is needed.

As of December 1, Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek were both in the top six in the league in points. After that, however, the Flyers are in a team-wide slump that has owner Ed Snider stunned.

"Never seen anything like it in all the years I've been in hockey," Snider admitted to Sam Carchidi of The Philadelphia Inquirer. "Even when we were an expansion team somebody chipped in here and there."

Lack of secondary scoring: 10 of #Flyers last 27 goals have been scored by either Giroux or Voracek, & the duo has figured in on 18 of them.

— David Strehle (@DStrehleTFP) November 29, 2014

How bad is the lack of secondary scoring? Stay-at-home defenseman Nicklas Grossmann has the same number of goals this season (two) as forwards Matt Read and Vincent Lecavalier and has more goals than R.J. Umberger.

Wayne Simmonds is second on the team with eight goals, but has just one goal during the Flyers' recent nine-game slump.

Sean Couturier only has four goals in 23 games, which puts him on pace for roughly 14 goals over an 82-game season.

"When you have two players like that, you really just need your second and third lines to chip in periodically to help them out, and that's not happening," Snider told Carchidi. "Guys can't go the whole year without scoring. That would be the most shocking thing I've ever seen."

The players are searching for answers. "We're gripping our sticks too tight," Simmonds told Carchidi.

Lecavalier is upset about his lack of ice time. "It’s pretty frustrating,” Lecavalier told CSNPhilly.com's Tim Panaccio. “The more you get out there, the better you feel and the more comfortable you feel with the puck."

Whatever the reason, the second and third lines desperately need to provide more offense for the Flyers.

The Flyers defense continues to be the team's biggest shortcoming.

As of December 1, the Flyers ranked 24th in the league with 32.4 shots allowed per game. They are 26th in the league in goals allowed per game with 3.09.

Philadelphia's lack of team speed seems to be most obvious on defense. The team has trouble containing quicker skating opponents. This was particularly obvious in recent road losses to the New York Islanders and New York Rangers in which the Flyers allowed a combined total of 81 shots on goal.

#Flyers defense now looks like Broncos D when Joe Montana and 49ers put up 55 points in Super Bowl XXIV

— Randy Miller (@RandyJMiller) November 29, 2014

Berube has tried a few things to get better play from his defensemen. He recently dressed seven defensemen for several games. Then, Luke Schenn and Andrew MacDonald were healthy scratches for a few games each. None of these ploys improved the defense.

Hextall has several talented prospects on defense, but already indicated to NHL.com's Adam Kimelman before the season started that he did not want to rush them to the NHL.

The high salaries and poor performances by the present defensemen make trading them next to impossible.

Few teams make the playoffs with a poor defense. The Flyers need to improve this area of the team quickly or the competitive part of this season could be over shortly.

The most frustrating and inexcusable problem during the team's recent nine-game slide is an overall lack of consistent effort that has driven Berube, Hextall and the rest of the team crazy.

The Flyers have been called out by their GM, chastised in postgame press conferences by their coach and held at least one players-only meeting but they still can't seem to put together a consistent 60-minute effort.

After the Flyers lost 2-0 to the Rangers in Philadelphia on November 19, Berube told CSNPhilly.com's Tim Panaccio, "We didn’t skate, we didn’t compete, you got to play hard in this league and we didn’t do that."

After the same game, Hextall was also overheard yelling at the team behind closed doors.

Ron Hextall can be heard screaming from changing room. "That's f---ing embarrassing! Jesus f---ing Christ!" and slammed door.

— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) November 20, 2014

Berube berated his team again after the loss to the Detroit Red Wings on November 26. "We had some guys that aren’t competing and it results in goals against," Berube told Scott Held of CSNPhilly.com. "It can’t happen. You need everybody on your team competing at the highest level all the time in this league; otherwise you will not win.”

After that game, the Flyers held a players-only meeting to try to straighten things out.

It didn't seem to help as the Flyers played listless hockey in back-to-back games against the New York Rangers, one of their biggest rivals. "The last two games we played the Rangers we’ve been flat," Wayne Simmonds admitted to CSNPhilly.com's Tim Panaccio. "We haven’t played them the right way and that’s what happens."

Fans can forgive a lack of talent, but a lack of mental or physical effort is simply not acceptable. If the Flyers weren't awakened by public chastisement by their coach, GM and a players-only meeting and couldn't get inspired to play well against one of their biggest rivals, the problem clearly goes very deep.

The Flyers play 12 of their next 16 games on the road. Philadelphia's road record is presently 2-8-1. If the team continues to lose at that pace, their playoff hopes will be all but over on January 3 when this 16-game stretch ends.