As a result, the Flyers have slipped into a tie for fourth in the Eastern Conference, and entered Monday as close to ninth place (eight points) as first place.
They have gone four consecutive games without a man-advantage goal, after scoring power-play goals in the previous seven.
"The penalty kill has given up too many goals, and our power play hasn't got one in a couple of games, either," winger Scott Hartnell said. "Specialty teams win and lose hockey games, and right now it's losing us games.
"It's not our personnel," Hartnell added. "I don't know if it's being undisciplined or what . . . but when you give great teams [such as Detroit] time and space to make plays, five on four, it's going to shoot you right in the foot."
The Flyers' suddenly cold power play is 0 for 13 in the last four games and is scoreless in its last 16 attempts.
In weekend losses to the New York Rangers and the Red Wings, the Flyers were 0 for 6 on the power play, while their opponents were a combined 5 for 13.
Three of the power-play goals allowed were scored while rookies Matt Read and Sean Couturier were on the ice on one penalty-killing unit, and two were scored against the Max Talbot-Claude Giroux tandem.
Flyers all-star defenseman Kimmo Timonen was on the ice for four of the five power-play goals.
"There are things we can do better in the neutral zone, as far as the PK goes, and end zone," coach Peter Laviolette said. "Like I've said, we have a lot of new faces and different pieces in place here that we will continue to look at. We have a good opportunity to do some teaching over the next couple of days and get ourselves back ready."
The Flyers are tied for 17th among the 30 teams with an 81.4 percent success rate on the penalty kill.
"I have a lot of confidence we'll get it back on track," Laviolette said. "I would say the same thing holds true for the power play. We got lots of looks and opportunities, but didn't get it to go."
