United and spirited, the rebuilding Flyers played like madmen and somehow made Game 82 matter

On Oct. 12, when the season began, you might have expected backup goalie Sam Ersson to start in goal and anonymous centerman Ryan Poehling to get tons of ice time on April 16, against the Washington Capitals, when it ended. That’s because, for a rebuilding team that shed experienced talent last summer, April 16 wasn’t supposed to matter.

It mattered. The Flyers’ world was upside-down, but it mattered.

Poehling, playing on his third team in three seasons and making $1.4 million, centered the first line. Flyers captain Sean Couturier, who began playing with the team 13 years ago and has an average annual salary of $7.75 million, had been a healthy scratch and was playing on the third line.

» READ MORE: Flyers lose 2-1 to the Capitals, are officially eliminated from playoff contention

It mattered because of Ersson, who had 10 starts entering this season and made his 49th start of the season Tuesday.

It mattered because of Poehling, whose 28 points doubled his output last season in Pittsburgh.

It mattered because the Flyers played every moment of the 2023-24 season like it was playoff hockey. They knew that for April 16 to matter, then on Oct. 17 (win against Vancouver), Nov. 15 (win at Carolina), Dec. 16 (win over Detroit), and Jan. 15 (win at St. Louis), they had to play like madmen.

They did just that. Their season was the most consistently entertaining of any of the four local major teams’ latest seasons.

“From the start of the year, everyone counted us out,” said Scott Laughton, nearly moved to tears.

For six glorious months, an under-talented collection of works in progress delivered an entirely palatable product. They lost their best defenseman to the rebuild at the trade deadline. They lost their goalie to the law. Eventually, they just wore down and lost eight in a row, but a two-win rebound in games 80 and 81 made Game 82 a must-win game to avoid playoff elimination. They needed help, but first they had to win. They had to play like madmen again if they wanted to keep on playing.

“As far as the process that we’re going through,” coach John Tortorella said afterward, “there’s a ton of stuff we can lean on as we keep on going.”

They played like madmen again.

In a matter of 90 seconds, it completely did not matter.

At 9:33 p.m., with less than four seconds to play in Montreal, the Red Wings tied their game, 4-4 — former Flyers defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere set it up — and that was that for the Flyers. They needed the Canadiens to win in regulation. By then, with 3 minutes, 10 seconds to play in Philly, Ersson’s net was empty. Ten seconds later, T.J. Oshie tallied what was, to the Flyers, an irrelevant empty-net goal. It was relevant to the Caps, since a win meant they were in.

That’s why the thousands of Capitals fans went crazy.

They won, 2-1.

How the Flyers got there was even more improbable than that they got there.

Franchise goalie Carter Hart was one of five professional hockey players from Canada’s 2018 World Juniors team who were arrested in January and charged with sexual assault, and he missed the Flyers’ last 35 games on “indefinite leave.”

They traded Sean Walker, their best defenseman, to the Colorado Avalanche two days before the deadline.

“As a group, all year long, we fought through adversity,” Couturier said. “We fought every night. We never gave up.”

The power play ranked dead last and finished the year on an 0-for-24 drought.

The penalty kill, ranked 16th or worse in each of the past three seasons, ranked in the top five most of this season. It was spearheaded by, of all people, flippant forward Travis Konecny, and it actually became a weapon: Their 16 shorthanded goals not only lead the NHL, they lead the NHL by 25%.

» READ MORE: John Tortorella’s ‘proud’ of his Flyers regardless of what happens in Tuesday’s do-or-die season finale

That all of this came together under the constant scowl of Tortorella is nearly as amazing as it coming together under first-year general manager Danny Brière and rookie president Keith Jones, neither of whom had the sort of experience such posts usually demand.

The Flyers played hard.

They saw an early goal disallowed after a review. They got hosed again by Alexander Ovechkin’s lucky deflection to fall behind, 1-0.

They rallied in the second, when all five skaters touched the puck at least once before Erik Johnson deflected it past Charlie Lindgren’s right pad. Lindgren saved the game twice on consecutive shots from Konecny in the second period.

Still, they came. They played like a team united.

“When we’re tight, and play for one another, we can do some special things,” Couturier said.

Should Tortorella get credit? Were they united because of him, despite him, or to spite him?

Who knows. United, they were.

Until the sweet and bitter end.