Flyers open season

Two games in, the Flyers have been drastically outshot, sloppy with the puck, and look nowhere close to the group that clicked last year for a playoff run.

Flyers lose 7-0 to Penguins

The Flyers opened their new season Wednesday night and got embarrassed by the rival Pittsburgh Penguins, 7-0, in front of a home crowd at Xfinity Mobile Arena that had just gotten back to believing in them again, only to revert right back to booing them off the ice.

Coach Tocchet's response

Head coach Rick Tocchet told the press after the game, 'I honestly don't have an answer. I don't know if we won a battle tonight, and when you don't win battles, they have the puck...They out-coached us tonight, they outplayed us, they did everything better than us tonight.'

“I honestly don't have an answer. I don't know if we won a battle tonight, and when you don't win battles, they have the puck...They out-coached us tonight, they outplayed us, they did everything better than us tonight.”

Flyers lose 3-2 OT to Devils

The next night in Newark, for the latter part of a back-to-back against the New Jersey Devils, the Flyers lost 3-2 in overtime, which at least gained them a point in the standings and looked a lot better on the scoreboard, but still left a lot to be underwhelmed by when watching.

Puck control issues

They struggled to drive in toward the net. They couldn't get there at all against the Penguins, and on Thursday night against the Devils, their two goals were generated off shots from Travis Sanheim from way up at the point.

Shooting and giveaways

Two games in, the Flyers have been outshot 82-44 and have gotten crushed by giveaways at a deficit of 44-29.

Power play struggles

Their power play, which they've been fumbling to improve for years, is right back to the miserable spot it left off at 0-for-4 so far.

Defensive structure collapse

Their defensive structure, which they relied on heavily last season in Tocchet's first year as coach, was next to nonexistent on Wednesday and was left getting carved up by New Jersey star Jack Hughes on Thursday, who would go on to score the OT winner after stripping the puck away from Sanheim behind the Devils' own net.

Goalie saves

The new backup goaltender, Joseph Woll, making 41 saves in the loss was maybe the one saving grace.

Player comments

Center Christian Dvorak said, 'We just gotta be better, play our brand of hockey. We haven't gotten there at all yet.'

“We just gotta be better, play our brand of hockey. We haven't gotten there at all yet.”

Last year's comparison

Last year's Flyers did get off to a similar 0-1-1 start, where they were heavily outshot (73-43) and were arguably just as sloppy with the puck (40-24 in giveaways) in road losses to the Panthers and Hurricanes, before they eventually came home to rebound and outwork that same Panthers team for the first win of the season.

Current concerns

Or maybe the early disconnect for this year's team lingers, and suddenly, general manager Danny Brière's stated concerns about complacency and a possible 'step back' from the offseason become scarily accurate.

What's next

None of it is good enough, not even close. The Flyers were expected to be better, but this team looks like it never got the memo that the season actually started.