Flyers winless in 7 games, their worst start in franchise history - ESPN

Tyson Foerster slid headfirst on the ice chasing a puck in a scoreless game and got tangled with Carolina's Jordan Martinook.

Martinook did to Forester what the Stanley Cup champion Hurricanes and the rest of the NHL have done to the Flyers: used him as a punching bag.

Foerster had little fight, and neither did the Flyers. The Hurricanes scored only moments later and eventually beat the winless Flyers 4-1 on Sunday night.

After teasing Flyers fans last season that perhaps a rebuild was yielding a promising future after they won their first playoff series since 2020, coach Rick Tocchet's team is 0-5-2 and the only winless team in the Eastern Conference.

In the waning moments of the loss, pockets of fans who stuck around for another anemic loss chanted «Fire Tocchet! Fire Tocchet!» The rest simply booed the team off the ice.

«I think we go off the rails at certain points of the game,» Tocchet said. «I don't know if it's experience, pressure, I don't know.»

The Flyers weren't quite ready this season — especially after Anaheim matched Philadelphia's five-year, $90 million offer sheet to Leo Carlsson — to move into the Stanley Cup conversation. But play this poorly?

Flyers general manager Danny Briere told reporters over the weekend in Boston that «it's not the time to panic because of a bad stretch.»

It's getting close.

The Flyers were crushed by Pittsburgh 7-0 on opening night and have been outscored 28-8 this season en route to the worst start in franchise history. The Flyers had twice before, in 1999-00 and 2008-09, gone six straight winless games to open a season. Both of those teams rebounded to make the playoffs.

Since taking a 3-0 series lead in the opening round of the playoffs against Pittsburgh, the Flyers have