PHILADELPHIA — The Pittsburgh Penguins will be gone for more than a week.

Thanks to a combination of the NHL’s break for the All-Star Game and the Penguins’ scheduled bye, they won’t play a game for nine days.

One reasonably could accuse them of extending things into a 10-day break.

The Penguins offered an incomplete and mostly enervated effort against their most enduring rival, the Philadelphia Flyers, in a monotonous 3-0 loss at Wells Fargo Center.

Having played 11 games in only 20 days, their lack of energy was evident to the naked eye and confirmed with a blunt critique from their coach.

“There wasn’t anything,” a sullen Mike Sullivan said. “For me, there was a lack of execution, a lack of attention to detail, no sense of urgency, no cooperative play. Can’t play that way in this league and expect to win.

“Tonight, we were easy to play against. We didn’t chip bodies, finish checks, we didn’t make great decisions with the puck, we didn’t execute when we had it. There’s nothing positive I can draw from this game. It’s disappointing.”

After a scoreless first period, the Flyers struck first at 5 minutes, 26 seconds of the second period.

Gaining the offensive zone on the right wing, Flyers forward Sean Couturier veered towards the high slot and fed a pass between Penguins forward Patric Hornqvist and defenseman Jack Johnson to Flyers forward Jakub Voracek driving up the left wing.

Cutting across the front of the crease, Voracek tucked a backhander under goaltender Tristan Jarry’s left skate for his 10th goal.

With the benches being on the far side of the ice, Chad Ruhwedel and Johnson were stuck on the ice for 1:20 seconds — a long shift by any measure — before the goal was scored.

It became a 2-0 score at 18:40 of the second period. Penguins rookie defenseman John Marino tried to skate a puck out of his own zone but lost it on a pokecheck from behind by Flyers forward James van Riemsdyk, who tapped the puck to the neutral zone.

Flyers forward Claude Giroux claimed it and banked it off the right wing boards, creating a rush into the offensive zone for forward Travis Konecny. From the left dot, Konecny fed a pass to the front of the crease, where van Riemsdyk tapped the puck through Jarry’s legs for his 14th goal.

An empty-net goal by Flyers defenseman Justin Braun at 19:00 of the third period completed the scoring. It was his third goal of the season.

The Penguins’ best chance to get on the scoreboard came 5:41 into the third period, when Pettersson chopped a slapper from the left point that clanged off the near post. Penguins forward Sidney Crosby battled for the rebound but could not get a clean handle on the puck as he fell on top of Flyers goaltender Brian Elliott.

With such a pronounced respite looming, the Penguins certainly offered the appearance of a team needing some downtime on Tuesday. Their captain suggested the break should have provided a boost beforehand.

“It should be motivating,” Crosby said. “You go out there, you empty the tank. You get adequate rest after that. For whatever reason, we didn’t have it tonight. It’s unfortunate. It’s a big divisional game. It just seemed like they wanted it more. It’s never a good feeling when you finish the game and that’s the feeling you have. To have to sit on this one a bit, it’s not great. We’ll be motivated when we come back.”

When they get back, the Penguins will host the Flyers at PPG Paints Arena on Jan. 31. That game begins a stretch where they will face Metropolitan Division foes 17 times in their final 32 games.

“We should use the rest,” Crosby said. “Battled through a lot of different things (thus far this season) but the most challenging part of the season is ahead of us. We’ll use the rest and make sure we’re focused when we come back.”

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