Maybe Flyers should be sellers at trade deadline

LURKING JUST three points behind the Rangers on the morning of Feb. 1, the idea that the Flyers would quietly bow out of pulling the trigger on a marquee addition at the NHL trade deadline would have sounded preposterous.

Today, it not only seems like a more likely option, but it also sounds like the best option. And it has nothing to do with the standings.

It has everything to do with the Flyers' three "measuring stick" games against the Rangers and Red Wings the last two weekends. They came up embarrassingly small.

Over the last month, the Flyers haven't looked like the fast, aggressive team that let serious adversities - like losing Chris Pronger, playing 20 out of 29 games on the road, or even the haphazard play of Ilya Bryzgalov - roll off their sticks like a crisp saucer pass.

Instead, they've made the Flyers of the first half look like a crop that maybe overachieved.

They're just 3-4-3 in their last 10 games, with one of those wins coming in the shootout. The Flyers now trail the Rangers by eight points - and before the week is over, they could fall back to sixth place for the first time since November.

"Obviously, we've struggled here of late in a lot of different areas," general manager Paul Holmgren said Sunday. "One night it's the power play, one night it's the penalty kill. We're not playing as well as we need to play in our own zone right now. That's a five-man thing."

Notice: Holmgren did not say it was a "Bryzgalov thing" or a "Sergei Bobrovsky thing." And he's right. The defense has been sluggish, turnover-laden and soft in front of its own net.

Clearly, this Flyers team - as it is currently made up - is not going to skate long into the spring with two rookie defensemen chewing up minutes on the back end. Then again, not one veteran - not even All-Star Kimmo Timonen - has been impressive lately.

"I think to pin it on the young guys right now . . . is a [stretch]," Holmgren said. "I think everyone can play better: goalies, defensemen. It's not any one issue. We've got to do a better job in our own end. We've shown a pretty good ability to score goals, but I do think it's harder to score goals when you get this late in the year.

"That goes back to my point about the young guys. It's a different game now and they've got to bear down on things. Overall, we need to just play better."