Philadelphia Flyers
Bailey: Tortorella’s Criticism of Flyers is Unfounded
The Philadelphia Flyers have lost five straight games, and have a record of just 2-5-3 in their last 10 games.
Of their five most recent losses, the Flyers have lost twice in overtime. The Flyers scored only one goal in each of the three regulation losses.
Their latest defeat, a 4-3 overtime loss to the visiting New York Islanders, was enough for head coach John Tortorella to blow a gasket, as he blasted the team in his postgame press conference.
“There are certain people that don’t have a clue how to play,” Tortorella boomed. “Or just don’t have it in them to play in these types of situations.”
That’s a pretty harsh assessment for a Flyers team whose theme all year has been ‘the little engine that could’.
There’s seldom been a Flyers win this season where resiliency or determination weren’t central themes. And yet, despite all the losses that have piled up over the last few weeks, the Flyers are still in a playoff spot. Not by much, but they are in one.
Tortorella, by now, should be well aware of the ill effects of players playing fatigued. He’s been a head coach in the NHL since 2000, but hasn’t won a thing since 2004. That was before future Hockey Hall of Famers like Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, and Evgeni Malkin were even drafted.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Kind of like how the Flyers have repeatedly thrown Sam Ersson to the wolves despite a.) the fact that he is an overworked 24-year-old rookie, and b.) Tortorella, Danny Briere, and the Flyers publicly acknowledged this. It’s almost abuse at this point.
The Flyers are 11-15-5 in 30 games since the last time Carter Hart started for the team on Jan. 20. Ersson is 9-11-4 since then, with a .874 save percentage and 3.30 GAA. Ersson has played 26 of those 30 games, which includes his relief of Hart on Jan. 20.
Over an 82-game season, that prorates to 71 games played for Ersson. That’s virtually unheard of in today’s NHL.
Tortorella coached Sergei Bobrovsky and Henrik Lundqvist at the peaks of their careers, and only Lundqvist played more than 70 games under him, doing so just once. A rookie Ersson is not prime Lundqvist.
Is this young Flyers team really not build for the playoffs, or is the coach exempt from the responsibility of putting them in a position to succeed?
The power play has been terrible all season and still ranks dead-last in the league; their 12.92% conversion rate is nearly 2% lower than the second-worst Blue Jackets, who currently sit at 14.43%. There is no creativity present in that department and very few changes have been made in an effort to try and improve the power play.
Sean Couturier was named captain, demoted to the fourth line, and then benched. Tortorella then decided to give Couturier his place back on the top line against New York, only for him to leave injured after three minutes of ice time.
Oh, and a line of Noah Cates, Couturier, and Denis Gurianov had a 100% expected goals percentage (per Moneypuck) in four minutes in Saturday’s 5-1 loss to Chicago, and in the very next game, that line was broken up and Gurianov made way for Cam Atkinson.
The same Atkinson that hasn’t scored a point since Jan. 23 against Tampa Bay – an 18-game scoring drought for him. That’ll help fix the offense and the power play.
Not to mention Bobby Brink was a healthy scratch once again.
Ronnie Attard and Adam Ginning were held out of the lineup in favor of Erik Johnson and Egor Zamula, and together, the latter two put together another nightmarish performance as a pairing against New York on Monday night.
Which Flyers truly “don’t have the balls” to play in these games? Couturier, Joel Farabee, Travis Konecny, Scott Laughton, and Travis Sanheim are all holdovers from the last time the Flyers made the playoffs in 2020 and have been here before.
Farabee was a teenager on opening night, while Konecny and Sanheim were in their very early 20s. Couturier and Laughton both finished with nine points in 15 playoff games, and everyone, in general, contributed a reasonable amount in terms of scoring.
Sure, Konecny went goalless in his 16 playoff appearances that year, but he still had seven assists. Konecny also struggled to score at a regular clip again up until last season. Now, he has back-to-back 30-goal seasons for the first time in his career.
And, Farabee has not been without struggles of his own, but he’s enjoyed easily the most productive season of his career with or without said struggles. Morgan Frost, who deserves mention, bought the Flyers an important point despite his failure in overtime; both moments could decidedly determine the Flyers’ fate in the next two weeks.
It would be totally unreasonable for Tortorella to levy such harsh criticism on players like Cates, Tyson Foerster, Owen Tippett, Ryan Poehling, and Garnet Hathaway, all of whom have been instrumental to the Flyers’ success at various points in the year.
Jamie Drysdale had just returned from injury, and Sanheim and Cam York are both playing on empty batteries. Brink didn’t even play, and neither did Attard, Ginning, Gurianov, or Olle Lycksell. For Tortorella to grandstand and blast the Flyers after that loss to the Islanders is just nonsensical.
Tortorella has done plenty good for the Flyers this season, but he’s done some bad as well. The game needs to be called evenly on both sides.
If the Flyers miss the playoffs, it will be due to more illogical decisions that have put the team in a position to fail.
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It’s good we can lean on fatigue as the reason other teams are beating us and we are sinking like a rock. Did the other teams play as many games as the Flyers? I’ll give you Sam E, but not the rest of the team.
They lack the experience and confidence to start and finish games strong and that’s on the players.
I don’t always like Torts’ approach or his decisions but it’s not on him they turned soft over the past 10 games.
Yeah, I agree. I’m not a huge subscriber to the fatigue thing for skaters because every guy knows it’s an 82-game season. It’s not necessarily lingering fatigue, but fatigue in a game. It’s not healthy for the team when Sanheim and York get 25+ minutes a night because they refused to give Attard and Ginning more than 14 mins. But, my point is that it’s still the coach’s responsibility to have the team prepared, playing well, and ready to go. The lineups have been bad, minimal adjustments have been made, and now we’re here. That’s how I see it, anyway.
Thanks for your response Jonathan. I agree with your defensemen minutes point.
GM Briere didn’t do anything to get a #1 centerman on this team. It might have cost a #1 pick or two, and that might have hurt his rebuild a bit. I think Torts relies to much on Sanheim and York but Attard and Ginning are not ready yet and Drysdale is hurt yet again in his NHL career.
It’s all horseshit. This team jelled and had the guts to pursue the playoffs but management decided that the future is more important. It doesn’t always work that way. Not saying you mortgage the future although we’re eating alot of salary for a bit but could have kept the band together but a dark WFC may be in the cards for yet another year
I agree the Future is now . This season 50 yrs since our first cup next season 50 yrs since the last.. Seems like a lot of teams in the NHL build quicker or maintain better .
This is not high school hockey it’s the pros you get paid to play I don’t want to hear about being tired ask Bobbie Clark and Bernie how many games they instead we are middle of the pack as always played are we giving money back to the fans when the players don’t show up your veterans should be scoring and leading the Way where are they. you could have gotten a number one pick for Laughton you said you needed him to show the kid’s the Way he is a turn over machine TK is soft won’t go in to the corners for the Puck same with farabee you need talent to win don’t blame the coach you should have sold at the trade deadline and got as many picks as you can instead we are the middle of the pack as always same old Flyers blame the coach and not owner ship.
Punctuation much?
Just like Bobbie Clark, LOL.
I put the blame squarely at the feet of DB. Because of the immature nonsense of Carter Hart, a 24 year old rookie was thrown to the wolves and had to play a substantially higher percentage of games than he should have been playing because of the lack of a qualified NHL backup. If he didn’t wish to trade the 4th round pick he traded for Erik “human pylon” Johnson he could have gotten Anti Raanta off of waivers for free from the Hurricanes.
Because the team has no superstar in order to lean on for a goal when needed, the team had to play steady defense and until they lost three defensemen to injury and traded Walker, this philosophy worked just fine. After these four were withdrawn from the equation, Sanheim and York were playing 26+ minutes per night and they became subsequently gassed.
At this point drastic measures need to be done and besides the Columbus game, I’d put Fedotov in the pipes the rest of the way. They are now embarking on a four game road trip. They’re not catching the Caps and they need the Wings to falter. The Wings upsetting the Bolts last night did not help things. A hot goalie can carry a team and they have nothing to lose at this point by playing the new kid in town.
And…this is where coach starts to lose the room, using his same worn-out playbook. The team’s surprising success is largely due to their “we’re all in it together” mentality. So what’s the dumbest thing you can do? Undermine your players, especially publicly. You don’t build up an underdog team just to tear them down because you’re having a temper tantrum. You don’t play them according to who’s on your “nice” list at any given moment. And you absolutely don’t alienate your captain. Why GMs don’t get that Tortorella is ultimately a liability is baffling.
Nothing more needs to be said. Well done.
It’s interesting how you “pick and choose” parts of Tort’s interview to paint him in a certain light. NOWHERE do you mention that Torts said ” HIGH MARKS AS FAR AS HOW WE CAME BACK IN THE THIRD”. You CONVENIENTLY leave that out , and you’re a disgrace as a reporter.
A disgrace? Seriously. You’re attacking Jonathan? Torts said guys don’t have a clue and don’t understand how to play in these situations. Well then teach them, that’s your job. Torts pushes the envelop on self doubt. That’s his gig. Works for some not for all.
Couldn’t believe in the 3 on 3 when the flyers player took the puck, skated behind the Isles goal all the way back to his goal & lost the puck; isles score!
Any special team play lately has been crap and that’s why we’re gasping for air.
Torts interviewed today and STANDS BY HIS WORD. It’s a shame he has to talk to wimpy reporters as yourself who feel these millionaire players should be coddled and mothered. Last place in the power play – you’re an idiot!
Tort has to go, he doesn’t know how to coach. But sure does know how to yell, scream and blame everyone else. Please get rid of this hack. Long time Flyer fan since early 70s.
They are very founded. Konecny needs to be better. Errson should have been better conditioned to handle the load of a #1 goalie and needs to stop letting in soft game deflating goals. Zamula flat out stinks. Farabee needs to find his game.
Well, I never said the players didn’t need to be better. I said it’s the coach’s job to get them right and have them prepared. That wasn’t the case last week, so he needed to be held accountable too. He took accountability yesterday, which was absolutely the right thing to do in my eyes.
Zamila doesnt stink Egor with Johnson that’s a stinky pair. Johnson is the pylon