Lifeless offense helps deepen Flyers’ skid

Whatever it is, turnovers, chemistry, or an anemic offense the Flyers struggle to beat teams with winning records.

They have to play an almost perfect game to prevail unless it’s Buffalo or the New York Rangers.

After their 5-3 loss Thursday to the Washington Capitals, who led from start to finish, the Flyers have won just two of their last seven games against teams above them in the East.

The Flyers have scored more than three goals in just one of those games, which all too often leaves little margin for error from goalies Brian Elliott, who played Thursday, or Carter Hart.

The Scott Laughton-Travis Konecny-Kevin Hayes line scored two of the Flyers goals Thursday. Defenseman Ivan Provorov got the other goal.

“It’s tough coming back in this league,” said Laughton, whose goal with 10:45 left got the Flyers within 4-3. “When you’re down 4-2 or whatever it was it’s tough to come back, especially in the third when you’re pushing the game and trying to make things happen.”

Overall, the Flyers (13-8-3, 29 points) have lost four of their

last six games to fall eight points out of a playoff berth.

The lack of offense has been atrocious. Joel Farabee, tied for the Flyers’ lead with 11 goals, has just two goals in the last eight games. James van Riemsdyk, who also has 11 goals, has just one in the last six games. Sean Couturier? One goal in the last six games.

“I think recently we’ve come back a couple times, so I don’t think it’s a problem with our offense,” Konecny said. “It’s just a matter of us giving them those chances going the other way. I think when our team plays that simple game and gets it in deep, that creates more offense for us instead of chasing the puck around.”

For much of the game, the Capitals (17-6-4-38), who are second in the East, looked fresher although they are a team of old guys. A dozen of them are over 30, including 35-year-old Alex Ovechkin, who scored the first goal Thursday.

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Laughton still is steamed that Curtis Lazar of the Sabres got away with a dangerous trip after a faceoff at center ice Tuesday.

“I know him,” Laughton said. “I played world juniors with him. I know he plays hard. He plays a strong two-way game. I mean, it was just a weird play, and I thought it was dirty. I put my foot in on the faceoff and then he lifts my leg and I’m defenseless in that situation where I don’t have any footing around me and obviously, I landed pretty awkwardly there but was able to come back and feel good.” • • •

Konecny went to a knee slapping the puck into the net to knot the game at 1-1 in the first period.

The shot burst into the net like a hard slider in baseball.

“We’ve been working on popping the puck to the right areas for guys and get on those loose pucks and (Kevin) Hayes made a great play there,” Konecny said. “I just had to hit the net.”

It was the seventh goal of the season for Konecny, who also celebrated his 24th birthday.

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Michael Raffl sat out his second straight game with a hand injury.

“I talked to Michael yesterday after practice,” coach Alain Vigneault said. “His hand is not there yet so I don’t know. It could be day to day. It could be week to week. We’ll have to just keep a close eye on that.”

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NOTES » Erik Gustafsson registered his 100th career assist on Ivan Provorov’s third-period goal. … Ovechkin’s goal was the 715th of his career, leaving him three short of passing Phil Esposito (717) for sixthmost in NHL history.