Weird Night for Flyers; Torts: ‘I Just Want Them to Keep Believing’

Monday was a strange night at the Wells Fargo Center, and not just because an alligator was in the building and was hanging out with Gritty.

Take the first period. Carolina was dominating. It seemingly won every faceoff, had the puck down the Philadelphia Flyers’ end for most of the period, and yet somehow faced a 2-1 deficit after 20 minutes.

Take the third period. This was the Flyers’ best period of the night. Actually, both teams played great hockey in the third. There were few stoppages, the action was end to end, and both teams’ goalies were excellent.

So how were the Flyers rewarded for their best period of the night?

With a loss.

Carolina’s Teuvo Teravainen scored on a one-timer from the high slot with 3:47- left to give the Hurricanes a 3-2 win. It was the eighth straight time they had defeated the Flyers.

It was a tough way to not get a point. But the Flyers have been there, done that. Four games earlier, a miscue by Cam York led to a Vegas goal with 32.5 seconds remaining, giving the host Golden Knights a 3-2 win.

“We have to keep our wits about ourselves when we don’t get the results we want,” said coach John Tortorella, whose team is 4-4-1 after two straight defeats. “You can’t get too high when you win some games, and you can’t get too low when you lose.”

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— Sam Carchidi (@BroadStBull) October 31, 2023

Need short memories

The Flyers are rebuilding, so the hope is that they shake off these two losses and build off the positives — and there were many, especially when you consider that defending champion Vegas and Carolina could be Stanley Cup finalists.

“You look at some of our kids in our backend playing against that team,” Tortorella said after Monday’s loss. “That’s a potential Stanley Cup team. Watch how our backend played, quite honestly, our whole team as we got going. My thing is, I just want them to keep believing. You come away empty with points. We talk about the good things, but they want the points.”

Added Tortorella: “You’ve got to have something at the end of the night, and that’s where belief comes in. That’s what is frustrating for me (and) for them.”

The Flyers were in Monday’s game despite going 0 for 5 on the power play and winning just 29 percent of their faceoffs. But they nearly overcame that with a strong third period.

Tortorella looked at the positives.

“I think we played our asses off tonight,” he said. “At first, no. … We didn’t realize how quick they were. They kind of jumped us (early). We have growth. We have to have growth. When you don’t win  game like this, we have to take some lessons from it and try to get better. I’m not disappointed about how we played and how hard we played.”

Tortorella said he isn’t interested in moral victories, “but I think we have to keep it in perspective at where we are at here, too. We have to remember where we are in the organization and the process we’re at. I’m certainly not going to boo the team. I’m going to try to help them.”

Breakaways

The Flyers host Buffalo on Wednesday. … Carter Hart (30 saves) started his 200th career game Monday, fifth in franchise history. He is three starts away from passing Dog Favell (202). … Owen Tippett has a four-game point streak.