Inside the dressing room: Flyers bond in Boston, give Kevin Hayes’ nephew a day he’ll never forget

As the Flyers quietly packed up their bags following their overtime loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night, they couldn’t place enough emphasis on their upcoming game against the Boston Bruins as they looked to break a four-game losing streak and establish an identity.

Despite their first strong start in several games, they were unable to accomplish the first, falling, 4-1, to the league-leading Bruins. But they made inroads into forging a bond among a team full of young players, many of whom are new to the NHL.

» READ MORE: Scuffling Flyers starting to replay the sad story of 2021-22

Amid a five-game skid and with yet another player potentially injured in Travis Konecny, coach John Tortorella said his team has no idea what adversity is yet.

“If this is adversity, and we can’t get through something like this — there’s going to be many, many different situations, that are going to be harder to come through than this,” Tortorella said.

The team is far from establishing its identity, according to Tortorella, so any bit of character or chemistry they’ve got, they need to hold onto as they head to Montreal. If they beat the Canadiens, they can still walk away from their three-game road trip with a 1-1-1 record.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes look into what the team deemed a “critical” road trip:

Tortorella, who was born in Boston, may not always know what city he’s behind the bench in as he joked earlier this week, but several of his players relish playing at TD Garden.

For the five Flyers who attended college in Boston, the arena is imbued with memories.

Forwards Patrick Brown, Cam Atkinson (who is still injured and did not travel to Boston), and Kevin Hayes played at Boston College together, and Brown was proud to mention the “couple of trophies” they won with the Eagles, including the ones they won at TD Garden. All three won an NCAA championship with the Eagles and also won the Beanpot, a historic local tournament held every February at TD Garden.

The Beanpot is a tournament among the four Boston-area colleges with Division 1 hockey programs — Boston University, Boston College, Northeastern, and Harvard. While Brown, Atkinson, and Hayes played for BC, Joel Farabee repped Boston University. He never played against his older Flyers teammates, but he played alongside Max Willman at BU for one season.

Hayes, who grew up about six miles from TD Garden in Dorchester, said he has great memories of winning all four Beanpots he played in at the arena, including winning MVP in 2014, but his memories are also simpler.

“It’s a special building,” Hayes said before listing his best memories. “Scoring a couple goals here in NHL. Playing against my brother here when he played for the Bruins. Morning skates with a ton of friends and family here.”

Boston may be the 23rd-biggest city in America with the fifth-highest population density, but it really feels like a small town sometimes, Brown said.

“It seems like a big city but it’s a really tight-knit town, and I think everyone kind of knows each other,” Brown said. “So it’s really fun to come back and see friends and family.”

The Boston game held extra significance for Brown. He underwent back surgery in the offseason, and this was his first game back. He returned in front of a special fan in the crowd.

“My sister’s coming to the game tonight,” Brown said. “She goes to school in Boston. So I’m pretty excited.”

The crowd was also filled with Willmans, who lined the glass for warmups to watch Max play his second NHL game of the season. Everyone, from his grandpa to his girlfriend, made an appearance. Willman was born in Barnstable, Mass., about an hour and a half from Boston. Earlier this week he said with a big grin that his friends and family were extremely excited not only that he got called up but that he would be playing in Boston, as well.

“Just good timing,” said Willman.

But the rowdiest group was the Hayes contingent. Full of boys under the age of 10, they filled the empty arena with the sounds of their excitement during the morning skate. They climbed over seats and fences to watch from every angle, yelling encouragements like “Snipe that!”

Following the skate, they flooded the locker room, getting signatures and pulling big grins from the otherwise focused team, including starting goalie Carter Hart.

Hayes’ family and friends were joined by even more friends and even more family for the game.

Hart had suffered a beating the night before the game. Beau Hayes took a note from his 6-foot-5 uncle Kevin and used his size to his advantage. After burning Hart by going “top shelf” on him, the 3-year-old threw himself at the 24-year-old goaltender.

Taught to drop the gloves by Zack MacEwen earlier that evening, Beau was trying to fight “everyone” and nobody bothered to tell him not to fight the goalie. Instead, they cheered him on as Hart tried to defend himself.

“That was the best part,” Konecny said.

The Hayes family hosted the whole team, bringing in what Hart deemed “amazing” food, and setting up mini sticks for the little boys and the big boys alike to play with.

Brown has known the family since he was a freshman in college and said they’ve always been there for him. He had a great time hanging out with them, but he said it was also really good for those who don’t know the Hayeses quite as well.

“Anytime you get a chance to go meet a player on your team’s family, for the guys that haven’t met them, you get to know that teammate better and you get to care for them more,” Brown said. “It helps you become a closer-knit team.”

» READ MORE: The Flyers’ Kevin Hayes is embracing John Tortorella’s challenge after the hardest year of his life

While his teammates had fun, Hayes felt something more. It’s been just over a year since he lost his brother Jimmy, Beau’s dad. In the time since, he’s emphasized how important the hockey community’s response has been to him. With Jimmy’s picture taped to his locker in every city, Kevin carries his memory into every game. But the memories created now are just as important.

“Little things like that will be memories for [Beau] for the rest of his life,” Hayes said. “I don’t think guys on the team realize how far that goes for my family.”