Wayne Simmonds

Injuries, undisciplined play, and a lack of offensive firepower have contributed to the Flyers' scuffling start. They are 2-4, and only five times have they collected fewer points in their first six games since the franchise began in 1967-68. Injuries have been a major factor. Danny Briere, one of the Flyers' most creative offensive players, missed four games with a hairline fracture of his left wrist and is still rounding into form, and the team is now without two of its top players - left winger Scott Hartnell (broken foot)

TAMPA, Fla. - A parade down Broad Street will be a pipe dream if the Flyers' parade to the penalty box perpetuates. The Flyers, far and away the NHL's least disciplined team, found out the hard way with a 5-1 thrashing at the hands of a potent Lightning attack on Sunday night at Tampa Bay Times Forum. Penalties were bound to catch up with them at some point. Tampa Bay scored three times - twice on the power play - in a span of 4:21 in the first period to erase a 1-0 lead Sean Couturier built for the Flyers in the opening minute.

SUNRISE, Fla. - So much for the Flyers' attack looking anemic. Sparked by Matt Read's first career hat trick, they scored more goals Saturday night than they had in their first four games combined, triggering a 7-1 victory over the sad-sack Florida Panthers at the BB & T Center. "Hopefully this brings our confidence level up and we can continue to create offense," Read said after the breakout game. Defenseman Braydon Coburn (plus-3, four blocked shots) and center Claude Giroux each set up a pair of scores, goalie Ilya Bryzgalov (30 saves)

It doesn't matter how you get there - losing streaks, injuries, labor wars, plague of locusts. Whatever. Going eight months without winning a game is enough to make everybody start thinking dark thoughts. The Flyers came back from the NHL's farcical lockout and immediately lost their first three games. They did not look especially sharp doing it. Was that a side effect of the long layoff and short prep time, or was it a sign that this roster just isn't talented enough to contend?

NEWARK, N.J. - They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Scott Hartnell said the Flyers were facing as big of a "must-win" as possible for the third game of a season on Tuesday night, against a Devils team that booted them from the playoffs last May with little fanfare. That hunger for "payback" lasted all of about 67 seconds, when Travis Zajac tapped yet another first-period goal by Ilya Bryzgalov, igniting that oh-so-familiar derogatory anti-Flyers chant from the Jersey faithful at Prudential Center.

NEWARK, N.J. - Just a few seconds after he hung up with his parents in Ontario on Sunday night, Tye McGinn phoned his older brother, Jamie, halfway across the country in Denver. He could barely contain his excitement, explaining to his brother - who plays for the Colorado Avalance - as clearly as possible that he was being recalled by the Flyers. "It was probably one of the best feelings I've ever had," Tye McGinn said. "I was probably even happier to tell him, because he's already been through it all. We talk everyday.

The nerves were jangling and his heart was beating loud in his ears when Scott Laughton jumped onto the ice in an NHL game for the first time in his young life on Saturday. The Flyers' first-round draft pick, just 18 years old and trying desperately not to get sent back to juniors, also had the advice of teammate Scott Hartnell in his ears. "He just told me to play my game and do the things that got me here," Laughton said. "Do every little thing right and the rest will take care of itself.

Scott Laughton made a good first impression on the man who matters most - coach Peter Laviolette - as the Flyers opened their six-day training camp Sunday in front of a standing-room-only crowd in Voorhees. "He certainly didn't look out of place," Laviolette said. Laughton, an 18-year-old center who was the Flyers' first-round pick in the June draft, will be given every opportunity to earn a roster spot. "I thought he did a nice job out there," said Laviolette, who had watched Laughton play one junior game for Oshawa this season.

MATT READ waddled off the ice and into the Flyers dressing room on Thursday and snuck over to his stall in the only quiet corner. It's a space usually reserved for the Flyers' unnoticed players, with his locker located next to Zac Rinaldo and Eric Wellwood. There, it would be easy to forget that the player unlacing his skates led all rookies in goals last season, topping rookie of the year Gabriel Landeskog and burgeoning Oilers star Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Read, 26, was one of only two rookies to break the 20-goal pleateau, finishing with 24 - nearly 10 percent of the Flyers' entire total (264)