Flyers’ Tortorella Praises Effort vs Panthers: ‘Are you s–tting me?’

The Philadelphia Flyers had an ice-cold start to their Tuesday night game against the Florida Panthers. Then, the first intermission happened.

At the first horn, the Flyers were out-attempted by the Panthers, 26-12 at 5-on-5. The next period, the Flyers out-attempted the Panthers, 28-13, and out-chanced them, 17-5.

After the game, head coach John Tortorella explained that confidence is key.

“I’m just glad we won,” Tortorella stammered to traveling media after the game. “I think for our athletes, we needed to get some swagger back and some confidence. They should feel really good about it.”

“Like, I went in there after the second period, and I did, I said, ‘Are you s–tting me?’. I said, ‘That’s how we play!’,” Tortorella added. “I said ‘Do we understand how good we can be when we play that way?’. And, hopefully they gain some confidence and just be consistent.”

“The key for us is to try in games, within the games, and then game-to-game, is to sustain our personality,” the Flyers’ bench boss offered. “That’s our battle.”

It’s safe to say the Flyers held up their end of the bargain, at least on Tuesday night. Matched up against Florida’s explosive personalities, like Matthew Tkachuk, Philadelphia frustrated their opponents and didn’t allow a goal at even strength.

And, despite allowing a power play goal to Carter Verhaeghe, special teams were not the difference in this one. It was the Flyers’ character; their will to fight back and steal the game at even strength was almost palpable, especially in the middle frame. With tough games on deck in the next two weeks, the Flyers will need many more of these personality wins that blow Tortorella away.

Next up is the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Wells Fargo Center.

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