As Flyers hit halfway mark, Tortorella has ‘uneven’ team and ‘constant evaluation’

As Flyers hit halfway mark, Tortorella has ‘uneven’ team and ‘constant evaluation’ originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

VOORHEES, N.J. — John Tortorella is not one to sugarcoat things.

The head coach is well aware that the Flyers have been, at best, an up-and-down team, still searching for plenty of answers in a rebuild. The Flyers wanted to see more progress this season and it’s fair to say they haven’t like they did so surprisingly early last season.

Tortorella’s club will reach the mathematical midway point of the 2024-25 campaign Tuesday when it hosts the Maple Leafs (7:30 p.m. ET/ESPN+, Hulu). The Flyers enter at 17-18-5. After starting the season 1-5-1, they haven’t lost more than three games in a row, but they also haven’t won more than three in a row.

After Game 41 last season, the Flyers were 21-14-6 and allowing 2.76 goals per game.

This season, as they head into Game 41, they’re surrendering 3.55 goals per game, the third most in the NHL. In Year 3 under Tortorella, the Flyers are trying to take risks and push offense. But they can’t afford to sacrifice their structure.

“We have defined our style of play, I think we’re pretty comfortable how we’re going to play,” Tortorella said Tuesday at morning skate. “I think some guys have steadily improved. I think some guys have put themselves in the conversation of still being evaluated. And that’s a big part of what this year is about.

“Uneven in the first half. Some really good stuff. Some stuff [where] we lose ourselves a little bit. But it’s nothing shocking to me. It’s a constant evaluation on all the players as we continue to move forward here.”

The Flyers have dealt with instability in net ever since Carter Hart left the team almost a year ago because of the Hockey Canada sexual assault case. The club parted ways with its No. 1 goaltender in the offseason.

Last season, the Flyers were tied with the Senators for the NHL’s worst save percentage at .884. So far this season, they’re last with an .869 mark.

Samuel Ersson had to play a ton down the stretch last season. He entered this season as the Flyers’ No. 1, but has missed 15 games because of lower-body issues. Aleksei Kolosov, a 23-year-old with 11 starts of NHL experience, and Ivan Fedotov, a 28-year-old with 12 starts of NHL experience, have spelled Ersson this season.

“I think I was pretty honest at the beginning of the year where we were at,” Tortorella said. “We did not expect this. Ers, we’re force-feeding him. Now we have two other guys coming from Russia, coming over, in the picture a lot quicker than we ever thought they would be. When Carter left, that threw this into turmoil. It is what it is, we’ve lived with it, we continue to live with it and we do the best we can.

“No one foresaw this. I think a lot of people kind of run it down a little bit, ‘What are they doing?’ No one foresaw this was going to happen as you develop your team and you develop probably your most important position. We thought we’d have more time with Ers, to develop him. He gets thrown into it and now with his injury problems here of late, it has turned into even a little bit more of a situation. So we just keep banging away.”

Ersson will miss his third straight game tonight and 16th total. Fedotov will start with Kolosov as the backup.

The 25-year-old Ersson was playing well out of the holiday break before suffering his injury in the Flyers’ 4-0 win over the Sharks a week ago. He collided with San Jose center Luke Kunin in a race for a loose puck.

“Obviously a little bit unlucky I guess,” Ersson said Tuesday after a rehab skate. “I think I made the right play to try to go out and play the puck. It sucks that it happened.”

It marks the third time Ersson has been out this season with a lower-body injury.

“It’s definitely a little frustrating, not going to lie,” he said. “But I think for me, just trying to find a better perspective and try to put that frustration into a good thing. Now I feel pretty good. This time around, I don’t think it’s [anything] too bad. I feel like that kind of helps, too, that it’s like, ‘OK, I’ll be back pretty soon I feel.’ I felt like I was struggling a little bit after coming back from the injury and then when I started to find my game again, I got hurt again.”

The uncertain picture in net hasn’t made things easy for the Flyers. We’ll see if it changes in the second half.

“Each day I wake up, I’m not sure where it’s at, the way it has gone so far,” Tortorella said. “But that’s something we’re trying to iron out.”

Subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts:
Apple Podcasts | Youtube Music | Spotify | Stitcher | Simplecast | RSS | Watch on YouTube