Nervous wreck? Is Flyers season derailing because the players can't handle pressure?

PHILADELPHIA -- Dan Vladar isn't buying the notion that the Flyers season is cooked. 

Even after a 3-2 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Kings, their fourth straight defeat and 11th in the last 13 games, Vladar stood in front of reporters and said he and his teammates still believe. 

"You guys are doubting us but we're not doubting ourselves," he said. "We're a confident group. This is just a stretch -- it comes for every team. Look at Tampa. They didn't start well, and they're hot now. It's not just us, it's every team. 

"We have a young group. It's up to the older guys -- including myself -- to bring up the energy here. The confidence. We still believe the season's not over."

It sounds a little delusional - even if the Flyers did inch a point closer to a playoff spot Saturday and are now seven points out with 28 games to go. 

But getting there is going to be quite a long shot. Not only would the Flyers need to be very good over those final 28 games, they would also need help. They have to leap frog six teams and stave off a seventh - the New Jersey Devils - who they are tied with toward the bottom of the Eastern Conference. 

In short, Vladar and his teammates can believe in themselves all they want, until they show it on the ice for an extended period of time though, nobody is buying it. 

What can be bought, however, is that adversity is the greatest truth teller of all. How players handle it and deal with it -- or if they are a young player, learn from it -- is always the best indicator of who a player is or what a collective team is. 

And right now, that's what the Flyers are experiencing, and its what coach Rick Tocchet and GM Danny Briere are taking the most important notes on as they determine the future of the franchise. 

"There's a lot of nervous guys," Tocchet told reporters after the game. "(When) adversity hits you try to understand your team. ... When a bad thing happens it just snowballs. We got to stop it. It's all part of the process of learning adversity. ... We have to play a team game. We can't afford to play our own game. We just can't. It's not an individual sport. We have guys - they don't mean to do it - but they have to understand we have to play a certain way if we're going to compete."

What makes a guy nervous?

Is it an unfamiliarity with a situation? Is it overcompensating to try to alleviate pressure? Is it going outside of yourself to try and stop from drowning?

Probably a little bit of all of it. 

"The biggest hurdle (to get over) is that when pressure hits you, you want the puck or you want to make the play," Tocchet said. "It's almost like we go away from the puck. Not hoping that they don't (get) it, but I'm always talking about 'go find that pressure. Meet it.' We missed seven or eight 12-foot passes in the first period. Hey, man. You've got to make a 12-foot pass. There's technique to it. ... I think it's nerves. I think some guys are really nervous out there and I got to help these guys out."

Probably the best thing for the Flyers, over the final 10 weeks of the season, even if the players think they're not out of it yet, is to see which guys can get past these nerves and which ones can't. 

That's what Tocchet and Briere have to identify first and foremost. Because you can't have players who constantly wilt under pressure. 

Yes, mistakes are going to happen. Hockey is a game of mistakes. You deal with them as they come. But they can't be a regular part of the game. 

Against Los Angeles, the Flyers had 18 giveaways, the Kings had two takeaways. 

Those are subjective stats normally, and each has to be looked at individually to determine the circumstances, but when you see such a disparity, it's an indicator that the Flyers panicked more often than not and turned the puck over when they should have been making simple, area plays to move the puck. 

And all because they are feeling the pressure. 

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Tocchet thinks that there are players on the team who need reps. That finding practice time would allow them to feel the pressure in a lower stakes environment and have that translate to the games. 

But it's a condensed schedule this season because of the Olympics. Practice time is more rare than usual. 

It's not an excuse, but it can't be ignored. Mistakes that are repeated are often the result of not being able to train the mind and body to react in an instinctual manner to make the right decision more often than the wrong one.

And maybe those practices would tell you even more about certain players. Evaluation never stops. 

Do these guys have the moxie in their game that you want to be a competitor? Or do they put up a facade that looks good when things are going well, but that crumbles when the level of competition is elevated?

Identifying that is the most important next step for the Flyers executives and coaches. 

Otherwise those "we still believe even though the odds are stacked against us" type of quotes in the future will be completely tuned out by fans of the franchise -- if they haven't already.