Injuries? Yes, they have played a part in all of this.

Simon Gagne, the Flyers' leading goal scorer the past two seasons, hasn't been a meaningful part of the Flyers all season, playing in just 25 games.

Joffrey Lupul, who was on a 30-goal pace back in late December, has missed 26 of the team's past 37 games.

Mike Richards, the Flyers best player and emotional sparkplug, has missed nine of the past 14 games. He came up huge on Friday, with two goals, including one in a shootout to beat the Rangers.

Derian Hatcher, the Flyers' best defenseman on the penalty kill, has missed 30 games and is out for the season with a broken bone in his right leg.

R.J. Umberger, who was second on the team in assists when he went down with a sprained knee, is expected to miss another 10 days.

Each of those injuries has whittled down the number of points the Flyers could have had as they head toward the final two weeks of the season.

But in the absence of those players, Stevens needs to get more from the players who needed to come up big.

Danny Briere had two goals in 19 games before waking up and netting seven in his past nine.

Richards had one goal during the Flyers' 10-game losing streak. Scott Hartnell has four goals in his past 20 games. Umberger had one goal in 18 games before getting knocked out of the lineup.

And Vinny Prospal had one goal in 10 games before netting the game-winner last Tuesday night. But there's hope, with him having delivered the opening goal in the win over the Isles.

You see, Philly is no different than Jersey and Atlanta and Ottawa. And if history tells us anything, it's that changing coaches produces nothing but a bunch of Goldilocks players.

More often than not, if fingers need to be pointed, they need to be in the direction of the players sitting on the bench, not the coach standing behind it.

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