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Coach Berube: It’s time the Flyers ‘stop taking penalties’

Craig Berube

Assistant coach Craig Berube of the Philadelphia Flyers watches warmups prior to the game against the Boston Bruins at the Wells Fargo Center on March 30, 2013 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (March 29, 2013 - Source: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images North America)

The Philadelphia Flyers are known for their rough style of play. Their Broad Street Bullies label continues to be well earned, even today. In their previous five seasons, they finished in the top two in total penalty minutes four times.

Craig Berube was no stranger to the sin bin as a player, but the new Flyers head coach feels that it’s time for this franchise to change.

Philadelphia suffered a 5-2 defeat to Detroit last night with the Red Wings’ first three goals coming on the power play. That’s dropped the Flyers to 1-5-0 this season after they’ve accumulated 118 penalty minutes in just six contests.

“We have to stop taking penalties,” Berube said, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Sam Carchidi. “It’s been an issue in this organization for too long. It’s got to get better.”

There isn’t a player that you can point to as the sole source of the problem in Philadelphia. They have eight guys with at least six penalty minutes through six games. To put that into context, Jonathan Ericsson leads the Red Wings with six penalty minutes.

This isn’t a matter of the Flyers’ eagerness to drop the gloves either. They are in the middle of the pack in that regard with four fights, according to Hockey Fights.

At the same time, the Flyers have collected 39 minors while the next highest team has 26. That’s put them in a tie for the most power-play goals allowed despite their middle-of-the-road 78.8% penalty kill.

Their problems can’t be exclusively blamed on this one issue though. After all, Philadelphia hasn’t scored more than two goals in a single contest this season. Getting out of this rut will require improvement in a number of different areas, but it looks like Berube wants to see change in one that has been identified with the Flyers for a very long time.

Follow @RyanDadoun