Breaking down John Tortorella after latest loss: ‘Embarrassing ... for the Philadelphia Flyer uniform’

The Flyers boss called his team “soft” and said some of his players “don’t have a clue how to play” — but he did praise new goalie Ivan Fedotov.

Flyers head coach John Tortorella yells toward the ice during a game earlier this season.Read moreYong Kim / Staff Photographer

by Jackie Spiegel

Published Apr. 2, 2024, 9:58 a.m. ET

Yes, the Flyers got a point in their 4-3 overtime loss to the New York Islanders.

It was a critical point as time loudly ticks down to the end of the season. But if the Flyers want to keep playing beyond April 16, they need to figure out how to get two points in each of the remaining six games.

Why? Because teams are hungry for their postseason spot — they are in third in the Metropolitan Division — and those teams are not only getting it done right now, they have more runway than the Flyers. By the time the Flyers play their next game on Friday, they could be out of a playoff position.

In the Metro, the Washington Capitals have nine games left and are one point behind the Flyers. The Islanders have eight games remaining and are now four points back. Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins are six points back with two games in hand. And for the wild card, the Detroit Red Wings have played one fewer game and are one point back.

Things are not looking good right now for the Flyers after once again failing to play a complete game. Time to break down the key points of John Tortorella’s 1-minute, 56-second postgame presser.

‘Soft. One guy played, the goalie.’

This was Tortorella’s response when asked about his team’s play in the second period following Travis Sanheim’s end-to-end, game-tying goal 43 seconds into the period. Because after that, things went downhill fast.

In the remaining 19 minutes, 17 seconds of the middle frame, the Flyers were outshot by 17-1. The one shot was by Scott Laughton on a power play. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Flyers had 12 shot attempts and allowed 33 for the Islanders in the period. Woof.

“Not sure we really liked our game for the majority of it, but I know we got a point and an unfortunate break in overtime,” Sanheim said.

‘Terrific. He’s the only guy that played.’

The he and the goalie was Ivan Fedotov.

After Sam Ersson allowed two goals on six shots in the first period, the rookie Fedotov was called on for his NHL debut. Only three days earlier, the Flyers introduced the netminder. He served as the backup on Saturday and was tapped to enter Monday’s game at the start of the second period.

“It just didn’t look right with Erss, and I’m totally impressed [by Fedotov],” Tortorella said. “I put him in a [heck] of a spot, and he’s the only [expletive] player that played in the second period.”

Fedotov did seem to spark the Flyers, albeit only momentarily. Forty-three seconds after making his first NHL save on Mathew Barzal, he again stoned Barzal, this time on a breakaway. Fedotov made a glove stop and then covered the puck as the crowd went wild.

“I’m not a young guy, and have some experience in how it works. I don’t care [about] playing from the first minute or during the game. I need to play,” said Fedotov, 27. “So that doesn’t matter. I just want to help the team and give energy, emotion.”

At 6-foot-7, Fedotov certainly takes up a lot of space, but he consistently squared up to shooters. He closed the five-hole on Kyle MacLean, denied Barzal on a tip a minute later, stopped an Alexander Romanov shot with his left pad as it changed direction, made a stick save on a Brock Nelson wrister from the right side, and squared up on a quick shot by Matt Martin from the right circle.

“We kind of left him [out there] to dry,” forward Noah Cates said. “He did amazing, had some huge saves. So, really props to him for stepping in and taking care of us in that second. But, we definitely should have recognized the situation … [and] gotten pucks deep and kind of played to our game instead of turning it into a track meet.”

His only blemish in his first 20 minutes of NHL action — and there was not much he could do on the play — was a goal by Anders Lee off a tip in front on the second-to-last shot he faced in the period.

In the third period, he saved the three shots he saw. “Second period, we should play a little bit more aggressive, [and] third period was really much better,” Fedotov said.

In overtime — after he was told by his Islanders counterpart Semyon Varlamov to switch sides again, which they do not do in the KHL — he allowed the game-winner to Nelson after Morgan Frost and Jamie Drysdale combined to lose the puck in the defensive zone.

Overall, Fedotov looked calm and collected in net.

“I want to say thanks a lot to the fans, all fans. I’m excited, too,” he said. “Really happy to be here.”

‘Embarrassing’

“That was embarrassing in the second period for the Philadelphia Flyer uniform the way we played,” Tortorella said. “Embarrassing. High marks as far as how we came back into the third — some guys.”

Clearly, some guys are in the Tortorella doghouse.

“Not the whole game and not the whole group. There are certain people that they don’t have a clue how to play, or just don’t have it in them to play in these type of situations,” Tortorella said later to reporters. “And this is why I’m glad we’re playing [these games] because we have to figure things out as far as what we’re going to become as a team here.”

Whom specifically Tortorella was talking about was not disclosed, but Travis Konecny, who did not see his first shift in the third period until7:43 — which means he did not play on the power play that started 32 seconds into the period — had to be one.

Konecny did have 11 shot attempts and five shots on goal — as well as the secondary assist on Frost’s game-tying goal with 9.6 seconds left in the game — but he was also on the ice for three goals against, including the overtime winner.

Joel Farabee also sat for a roughly eight-minute stretch, although two minutes of that was an Islanders power play and the forward is not a penalty killer. He saw only one more shift in the first period after he was on the ice for Matt Martin’s tying goal; Cates gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead, but Martin scored off a major defensive-zone breakdown among the entire five-man unit, allowing him to be open for the shot.

Farabee registered two shots on goal, including from 17 feet out in the third period. The forward is snakebit these days — one point in his last eight games — and had stayed out well after morning skate Monday morning to work on his shot.

Is Erik Johnson another guy Tortorella was referencing? The Stanley Cup champion certainly does have a clue about these types of meaningful games.

But he was on the ice for two goals against and played just four shifts after Lee’s 3-2 goal. Johnson did take a hard hit right before the goal and came up looking for a call. After the check in the corner, Konecny got the loose puck and turned it over to Romanov for the point shot, which Lee deflected.

It certainly didn’t help settle things down for the Flyers when Sean Couturier went down with an injury in the first period. Couturier took a hard hit in the corner from Ryan Pulock, right before the Islanders went up ice and Bo Horvat scored to give the Islanders a 2-1 lead. As the Islanders were celebrating, Couturier went straight to the locker room and did not return.

The Flyers don’t play again until Friday and return to practice Wednesday. Tortorella said after the loss to the Chicago Blackhawks that his team may need some rest. Two nights later he wasn’t necessarily still on the same page.

“Yeah, yeah. We can talk about that [expletive], too. Rest, this, that, the other thing. If you don’t have enough [guts] to play in these types of games, rest doesn’t do us any good,” he said. “Doesn’t do us any good.”