5 Takeaways from the Philadelphia Flyers' Recent Road Trip

The Philadelphia Flyers just completed a five-game road trip and finished with a mediocre 1-2-2 record. While there were some positive signs on this road swing, four points in five games is not a good enough result to help turn around this disappointing 2014-15 season for the Flyers.

Here is a look at five key takeaways from this recent road trip and what they mean for the team going forward.

The items are listed in order of importance and how they will affect the Flyers in both the near and long-term future this season.

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

Flyers general manager Ron Hextall was clear and straightforward earlier this week when he simply told reporters, "I have no plans on replacing the coach."

It's tough to pin the team's recent struggles and poor performance directly on Berube. This is the same coach who helped the Flyers finish last season with 94 points and a playoff berth after a terrible start.

Simply put, Berube is stuck with a roster that has too many holes, lacks team speed, depth and talent on defense, and has too many big contracts with no-movement clauses and not enough salary-cap space to make a quick turnaround.

CapGeek.com indicates Philadelphia has roughly $1.2 million of cap space.

Giving Berube more time makes sense, at least for now. He is trying different things by benching different players—like Luke Schenn, Michael Del Zotto and Vincent Lecavalier—in order to light a fire under them.

But because of the team's lack of available NHL-ready talent in the AHL and the unlikelihood of a blockbuster trade, that's about all he can do other than juggle his line combinations.

Berube is not the problem, or at least not the main cause of it. Until he proves he is not the possible solution, he will hold on to his job.

Although the Flyers won only one game on this road trip, they picked up at least one point in three of the contests, with most of them coming against teams considered better than Philadelphia.

One big reason the team was able to stay in nearly all of these games was the play of goalie Steve Mason.

Playing behind a mediocre defense, Mason kept his team in several games in which they were outplayed. In the three games in California, the Flyers picked up three points. Without Mason's fine play, they probably would have had none.

After the win over the Los Angeles Kings, Jakub Voracek was quick to praise Mason. "He’s been outstanding all season long," Voracek told reporters. "Almost 40 shots on net...When they got the puck through, he was there for us."

For the road trip, Mason stopped 112 of 122 shots for a .918 save percentage. That number is even more impressive when you realize he is playing in front of a team that has a poorly regarded defense.

Mason has been fairly consistent all season.

Even when his team is bad, Steve Mason is good...In his 12 losses (0-9-3), he has a .909 save%...Quick, Rinne, Fleury all below .900

— John Boruk (@JohnBorukCSN) December 9, 2014

The Flyers have plenty of big problems right now, but at least they know goaltending is not one of them.

Jakub Voracek and Claude Giroux remain the Flyers' only two reliable offensive weapons. They are not cooling off and remain two of the most dangerous players in the league.

During the road trip, Voracek scored a goal and had four points in five games. He leads the Flyers with 33 points.

Meanwhile, Giroux had points in four of the five games played on the recent road swing as well. The captain is second on the team with 29 points.

Voracek is tied for third in the league in points while Giroux is tied for sixth.

This duo also excels on the power play. Between them, Giroux and Voracek have scored 25 points while the Flyers have the man advantage.

How important are Giroux and Voracek to the Flyers? In the five games where neither of the Philadelphia's two stars has registered a point, the team has yet to win. The Flyers were shut out four times and scored only one goal in the other game.

Without the explosive offense provided by Giroux and Voracek, the Flyers would be near the very bottom of the NHL standings.

The Flyers are still having trouble killing penalties. As of the end of this road trip, Craig Berube's club is ranked 27th in the league and kills off only 75.8 percent of opposing power plays.

During the trip, the Flyers allowed opponents to score four times in 19 chances with the extra attacker. That's a 78.9 percent success rate, a bit better than their overall season performance.

The PK has been a problem almost all season. In the loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets that ended the road trip, two of the three goals scored by Columbus came when the Flyers were shorthanded.

It's actually kind of impressive how bad the Flyers' penalty kill is. You'd think they'd be able to kill some of these just by pure chance.

— Derek (@dmoore_8) December 10, 2014

In the one win on the road trip against the Los Angeles Kings, the Flyers' penalty kill was a major factor in their victory. They held the Kings off the scoreboard in five chances with the extra attacker.

When asked about the issues with his penalty kill last month, Berube was quick to respond. "It’s just little things," Berube told reporters. "Clearing pucks, we don’t win faceoffs or clear the puck, break a play up and don’t clear a puck and just overall not aggressive enough. Not aggressive enough."

There have been flashes of hope, like the game against Los Angeles, but the Flyers' penalty kill remains a big problem.

The Flyers continue to have trouble finding scoring from players not named Voracek and Giroux.

Last season, the Flyers were eighth in the league with 233 goals scored or an average of 2.80 goals per game.

Thus far this year, Philadelphia is just 20th in the league in goals scored and its other three lines have not provided enough scoring punch.

Finding any bit of secondary scoring is a must. Of last 29 #Flyers goals, Giroux or Voracek have scored 11, and they've figured in on 20.

— David Strehle (@DStrehleTFP) December 3, 2014

On this road trip, there were hints that this may change, but the overall production was still not consistent enough.

The Flyers scored 11 goals during the five-game road trip, and Voracek or Giroux had a hand in six of them. This is better than 20 of the last 29, but still too high a number.

Three goals were scored by winger Wayne Simmonds, who has provided the only consistent offense this season outside of Giroux and Voracek.

The lack of production from the rest of the lineup even has ownership concerned. "We have two of the best forwards in the league, but two players can't turn around a team," owner Ed Snider told reporters. "What's going on with everybody else? What's going on with [Sean] Couturier, [Matt] Read, Simmonds, and the other guys? They should be chipping in with some goals."

The Flyers need other players to step forward or they will not be able to make a playoff run this season.