Trudging through a 5-game road trip can be an arduous task, but when you're a professional athlete you have to figure out how to manage the stresses of long periods away from home. After one of their best performances in Carolina on Sunday, the Sharks looked like they were a tired team, skating through tar on Tuesday night as they dropped a 4-1 decision to the host Philadelphia Flyers at Xfinity Mobile Arena.

The speed through the neutral zone that we saw on Sunday was non-existent on Tuesday. The Flyers bottled up San Jose all night. Philadelphia also skated circles around the mostly stationary Sharks all night. A 16 shot opening period was just a preview of what would come all night.

Any semblance of an offensive strategy seemed non-existent. When they did possess the puck, the Sharks would either cough it up right away or make some peculiar attempt at a challenge to the Flyers. Nothing seemed to work.

The Flyers came out, well, flying. Their scouting report on the Sharks was to try and overwhelm them early. They used a steady dose of strong forechecking to pin the Sharks in their end for a majority of the opening period.

San Jose would not generate a shot on goal until 11:33 into the game but they made it count. Collin Graf scored in his 3rd straight game with a shot from the left side on a John Klingberg feed. Will Smith carried the puck around the back of the Flyers net from right to left before feeding Klingberg from the top of the left circle. Klingberg was heading toward the net in the opposite circle when he collected Smith's pass and immediately sent it through the slot for the one-time chance by Graf.

San Jose was forced to kill a holding penalty to Timothy Liljegren at 16:10, but they managed to keep the Flyers off the board.

Things looked as if the Sharks might make it to the first intermission with a lead but a lofting puck skipped past rookie defenseman Sam Dickinson. That allowed Christian Dvorak to shoot past Dickinson, gather the puck and put it past Alex Nedeljkovic with 1:21 left in the frame.

Adam Gaudette was called for hooking right at the 1st period buzzer, which gave the Flyers to start the 2nd period with a full 2 minute power play. The penalty killers did their job, but the tie would not last long.

Former Sharks forward Carl Grundstrom stung his former team by deflecting a Nick Seeler shot 80 seconds after extinguishing the Gaudette penalty. Playing in only his 2nd game as a Flyer since they acquired him last summer, Grundstrom was in the right place to redirect Seeler's shot from the left point to give Philadelphia the 2-1 lead.

Macklin Celebrini and Graf skated up ice on a 2-on-1 break with 3:30 to play in the period, but their scoring chance was muzzled by Flyers goaltender Dan Vladar. Offensive chances of any variety were almost on-existent in the period.

Not generating any chances to even convert on became a bigger issue when Noah Cates snapped a shot from the left circle that beat Nedeljkovic with 10.9 seconds left in the period to push the Flyers lead to 2 goals. Nedeljkovic just flat out missed the shin high shot that slipped between him and the left post.

The Sharks pulled Nedeljkovic with more than 3 minutes to play in an attempt to generate any offensive life.

Travis Konecny deposited a puck into the empty San Jose net with a shot from the Sharks blueline at 18:17 to cap the game's scoring. Dvorak was credited with the only assist for a 2-point night.

Game Notes:

* The Sharks signed Justin Kowalkoski to an ATO after Yaroslav Askarov came down with an illness and was unable to serve as Alex Nedeljkovic's back up. Kowalkoski last played for Colgate University in 2008. He is a geologist by profession.

* Rookie forward Michel Misa was added to the Team Canada's World Juniors camp roster on Tuesday. Misa is currently on a conditioning assignment with the Barracuda, but WJC opportunity will provide him with an opportunity to play in some meaningful games while building his endurance back up.

* The Sharks have surrendered 16 goals within the last 2 minutes of a regulation period this season, 2 shy of the league worst New York Rangers. 2 of the 3 Flyer goals were scored in the final 81 seconds of the 1st and 2nd periods.

* Sa Jose has scored 33 goals in the 1st period, which ranks 2nd in the NHL behind only the Tampa Bay Lightning.

* On a night where they rarely possessed the puck, losing faceoffs played a big part in exacerbating that issue. The Sharks won only 17 of 51 draws for a miserable 33% win rate. Alex Wennber was 3 for 14 (21%), Macklin Celebrini was 4 for 16 (25%) and Ty Dellandrea was 4 for 9 (44%).

* In their last 13 games, the Sharks have scored 3 goals in the 3rd period and 2 have been empty net tallies. They have a -46 goal differential over that span.