Love that pic from the gang at Flyers Goal Scored By. Too funny.

Chris Pronger hasn't quite taken the 'C' on from Mike Richards, but he has been pretty outspoken (and, well, good in terms of his play on the ice), something beat writer Tim Panaccio captured nicely in an unfiltered sort of way recently:

"He hasn’t asked me for any help," Pronger said of Richards. "I’ve been in his shoes. It’s not [bleeping] easy. The expectations are high on him and on the team. We’re not playing to the best of our abilities, and a lot of that gets shouldered by the captain."

"He’s been here four years and sees how things have progressed from being a s----y team to a pretty good team, to having even higher expectations. I would think he has a better read on some of these guys than I do."

"We need to make it [bleeping] happen on Thursday," Pronger said. "It needs to [bleeping] happen now, so we can get over that hump and get this ship headed into the right direction."

Thursday? Well, it wasn't so good. And I imagine Pronger served up a few more four-letter words as a result.

The Flyers came out of the gate as one of the league's best teams, but they've been a mess the past three weeks or so. They're out of playoff position now, behind the Isles and Lightning, and have gone 1-6-0 since a win over the Kings on Nov. 18.

And, as Matt over at The 700 Level points out, coach John Stevens's rear end is probably getting a little toasty on the hot seat.

Their issues, in a nutshell:

1. Goaltending. Ray Emery has really struggled during this down stretch and is in danger of giving up the starting role. They need him to at least work in tandem with Brian Boucher, but Emery's posted a 3.91 goals-against average and .861 save percentage in his past six starts. 
   
   
2. Power play. Philly has only 12 goals in its last seven games, including just two with the man advantage. They lost some depth when Mike Knuble and Joffrey Lupul left over the summer, but still have the cast to be one of the league's highest scoring teams.
   
   
3. Injuries. Plain and simple, they miss Simon Gagne, who was a big part of the 99-point season last year.
   

Expectations are sky high in Philadelphia after they added Pronger, and despite the fact management skimped on goaltending, Stevens is going to get the blame here if things stay sour. I think there are the components there for this to be a really strong team in the Eastern Conference, however, so if Peter Laviolette or Craig MacTavish steps in, they could be the ones to ride a Dan Bylsma like coaching change to something special.

I'll be very surprised if this team misses the postseason, but Emery's the wild card as he tries to play his way back into the league.

As usual.