Two bad games in a row cost players four easy points.  The first thing that pops up in Philadelphia fan's minds is goaltending.   Esche gave up three goals on Thursday, and three Saturday, which both games ended in a loss for the Flyers.  This is not like they were facing tough teams, they were facing two teams that they could of easily beat.  Thursday the faced the Isles and Esche gave up the long range goals, that led to a  4-2 lose.  Esche has been uneasy for the past two games. In Saturdays game against the Rangers he gave up 3 goals on 11 shots, the first real shot he faced he let by, by committing too early. The other two goals came within 90 seconds of each other in the opening 2 minutes of the second.  Coach Ken Hitchcock pulled Esche and replaced him with Burke, who actually came out of the game looking better than his buddy, Esche.  Chicko (Esche) has been solid all year, but the past two games he has looked dreadful. Whatever the problem is, it needs to be corrected.  The Flyers do not need this their last three games of the season, especially as tight as the standings are right now, they could fall to 6th in the East, and that could mean meeting Boston in the first round instead of the Isles or Canadeins.   The top 6 is only separated by six points.  First (Tampa) and Second (Philly) are separated by 1 point, then 2nd through 5th is only separated by a point each (99,98,97,96).  In Saturdays game the Flyers had chance after chance to score a goal, but every time they were robbed.  They had 21 chances in the third alone, and still didn't capitalize. The only exception was Tony Amote's goal late in the second (13:24).  Their power play is 0 for 19 in their past four games, not expected for the NHL's top power-play unit.   

    Besides Esche's gray plays the past two games, the Flyers have struggled on their special teams, the power play.  They were 0 for 6 Saturday, having unbelievable scoring opportunities but could not get the puck in net.  Cheap plays like High Sticking and cross checking are costing the Flyers that special time that they are so good at.  Desjardin is set to come back next week when the Flyers travel to Montreal to face the Canadeins.  Then the team comes back home on Friday, April 2nd to face the Senators, before traveling up to Long Island to face the Isles for their final game of the season. Preems how has been out for 7 weeks now, could return to action any day now, it just depends on how his symptoms do.  Three very important games lye ahead for the Flyers, because all 3 of those teams are playoff bound teams, and if the Flyers work right they can beat all three, at least two out of the three (Isles and Canadeins).  They have 5 days between now and Thursday, this time can be wisely, and knowing Hitchcock this is likely to happen.  A week ago their Play-off questions looked like they were answered because of the way Esche was playing, now could things take a swing and could Barry Melrose be right, could Burke be the guy in net for Philly?  Time will only tell, as the Flyers head down to the last three games of regular season action.