Getty Head coach John Tortorella of the Philadelphia Flyers
Head coach John Tortorella and the Philadelphia Flyers surely can’t catch a break this season.
Less than a month after getting suspended by the NHL, less than two weeks from scratching the recently-named team captain, and just a few days after bringing a long-chased goalie from Russia to America, the Flyers fumbled the ball and dropped a game to the second-worst team in the NHL, the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday.
“That’s a good, old-fashioned drubbing right there,” Tortorella told reporters at his postgame press conference on Saturday, March 30.
The Flyers lost to a hapless Chicago team that just won its 22nd game of the season on Saturday, beating Philadelphia 5-1 in a sound and solid victory over the playoffs hopefuls. It was Chicago’s third win in four games, and Philadephia’s four consecutive loss.
“We’re not executing,” Tortorella said. “We sucked tonight.”
John Tortorella Blamed the Loss on Fatigue
The Flyers’ chances at making the Stanley Cup Playoffs looked reasonably high entering the second half of March. Following a 3-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks on March 13, however, Philadelphia seems to be running out of gas as the team has only been good for a paltry 2-5-2 record since.
Rookie Tyson Foerster scored Philadelphia’s only goal on Saturday as the team was limited to a single goal for the second game in a row and the third time in their last four games, all of them ending in defeat.
Foerster became the first Flyers rookie since Matt Read in 2012 to score 20 goals in a single season, per NHL Public Relations account on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Tyson Foerster became the first @NHLFlyers rookie since Matt Read (24 in 2011-12) to score 20 goals in a season and the fourth Philadelphia player this season to reach the mark.
“I know (Travis Sanheim) and (Cameron York) are on fumes,” Tortorella said. “Just watching them play, they’re not even thinking correctly.”
Sanheim and York, who play on the Flyers blue line on defensive duties, logged 21:59 and 24:46 minutes on Saturday. Those two figures led all Philadelphia skaters (forwards and defensemen) with only other Flyers player (forward Travis Konecny) getting more than 20 minutes.
Philadelphia cut Chicago’s two-goal lead in half 17 seconds into the middle frame but allowed a power-play goal at the end of that period that pretty much finished their hopes of mounting a comeback.
Philadelphia Should Make the Playoffs, But Nothing Is Guaranteed
The most damaging outcome of this result is not the fact of losing a game to the second-worst team across the NHL landscape, far from it. The biggest negative is the impact of the loss on the broader picture of the league as the Flyers try to push for the playoffs in the final three weeks of play entering April.
“We’re not executing,” Tortorella told reporters. “I try to be honest with you about the game itself that we play. I don’t think we’ve played poorly up until tonight.”
Tortorella’s words contradict the ongoing four-game losing streak and the club’s recent results with a 3-5-2 record in their previous 10 games. Following the loss to Chicago, Philadelphia also fell from the No. 3 seed in the Metropolitan Division and into the second wild-card position.
The Washington Capitals (36-27-10) lost their game on Saturday in a shootout against Boston but that lone point earned them the right to move up to the third seed in the Metro.
The Flyers are tied at 82 points with Washington but have played two more games than the Capitals through March 30. The Detroit Red Wings (36-30-8, 80 points), sitting right behind Philadelphia in the standings, only trail the Flyers by two points with a game in hand.
According to Tankathon, the Flyers have the eighth-softest strength of schedule in their remaining seven games. MoneyPuck gives Philadelphia a 75% probability of making the playoffs, while Washington has 73.8% odds, and Detroit 27.8%. No other team in the conference sitting behind Philadelphia in the standings has odds above 10 percent.