‘Out of gas’ Flyers get day off to rest, forget about loss

How do you recover from the most embarrassing loss in recent memory? With a day off the ice, of course.

Flyers coach Peter Laviolette cancelled practice yesterday, instructing his players to stay away from the rink and rest. Following Sunday’s 7-0 loss to the New York Rangers, Laviolette’s club has lost six of their last eight games, including four straight.

“If everyone is honest here and look at the [loss] as an isolated game, we had no gas,” Laviolette said. “To bring them in again, the mental part of it and physical part, I just didn’t see any good it was going to do.”

Laviolette blamed himself for wearing the Flyers out, after conducting three strenuous practices last week. Three forwards — Jeff Carter, Darroll Powe, Dan Carcillo — missed time last week because of the flu. It didn’t help that the Flyers had played three games in four days.

“It was like we were moving slow out there,” Laviolette said. “If I am being honest, I have to take one hundred percent responsibility for what happened. We came into the month of March and we wanted to push.”