Flyers takeaways: Three comebacks, and winning with a power play in hibernation

John Tortorella walked into the Flyers locker room between the second and third periods on Monday night, and told his guys that he had a good feeling about this one.

Well, the bench boss should probably go buy a Powerball ticket for Wednesday’s drawing because he was right. Trailing by 3-2 heading into the final frame, his resilient bunch clawed back one more time and skated away with a 5-3 victory against the Arizona Coyotes.

“I don’t think we were playing that bad,” Tortorella said after the Flyers won their fourth straight. “… We weren’t great, but I still thought we were generating enough. I still thought our energy was good. I just felt that we just stayed with it and not get anxious about it and give up more by being too anxious, that we’d find our way.”

As the longtime coach knows, perfect games do not grow on trees in the NHL. And as a guy who has been in playoff pushes as numerous as the stars, he knows that the road to April is a bumpy one.

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“I think, you guys [the media] know, too, it wasn’t our best game and every time we kind of got our momentum, we gave it back to them,” winger Travis Konecny said. “We just found a way to win, and that’s what we’re learning. That’s a good thing for our group, is just finding ways no matter how the game is going, you just keep yourself in it and give yourself a chance.”

And they did. As defenseman Jamie Drysdale said, Tortorella helped to motivate the group with his positivity. Sticking with that, here’s a compliment sandwich from the Flyers’ second win this season when trailing after two periods.

A month and a smidge ago, center Morgan Frost was scratched for the 11th time this season. He then had, let’s call it, a friendly chat with Tortorella. Since then, Frost has stepped up his game. On Monday, he finally received high praise from Tortorella.

“Probably one of the best games I’ve seen him play in a while,” the coach said. “I thought he tried to put the team on his back and you could see that he felt it.”

Tortorella added that what was encouraging to him was that Frost was “willing to play the middle of the ice.”

That drive to the middle led to the center being rewarded with a penalty shot after he sliced straight through the Coyotes defense. He scored on the penalty shot — the Flyers are now 4-for-4 this season — thanks to taking it wide, curling to the middle, then beating Karel Vejmelka. But don’t ask him for the details — he’s not sharing his secret to success.

“Yeah, I feel pretty good. I think my legs feel good, and I think I’ve been preparing well for the games and making sure my body feels good,” said Frost, who finished with seven shot attempts, including four shots on goal.

“My teammates have a lot of confidence in me, and they’re always pumping me up to kind of feel myself, [and] I can maybe make some riskier plays and some more skill plays.

“When I’m doing that, I think that’s when I’m at my best. I think it’s never always going to be perfect, there’s going to be some mistakes in there. But I think when I’m playing with that confidence and kind of doing my thing, I think that’s what I’m most effective.”

While Frost was using his feet effectively to create chances, the smooth-skating Drysdale was doing the same. And his ability to keep his feet moving allowed the blueliner to notch the tying goal in the third period.

Drysdale got a pass from Konecny, skated into the right circle, and got a lucky bounce off Matt Dumba’s skate when trying to fire the puck on net.

He’s another guy who has been told to play with confidence and get up into plays, and as he said: “It’s about time I start doing it.”

Konecny didn’t want to put a negative spin on a game the team came back and won, but let’s be up-front, the power play was blanked. One power play lasted just 2 seconds after Travis Sanheim took a high-sticking penalty off the faceoff, so scratch that one off the list. But with the man advantage, the Flyers went 0-for-7. Across those seven power plays, the Flyers had seven shots on goal, six missed shots, and five blocked shots. Eighteen total shot attempts.

The Flyers’ power play is now at 12.6% effectiveness (31st in the NHL). Entering the game, the team was 1-for-15 in the last five games. The struggle has been there all season, but there was hope just a few weeks ago when they notched three goals in six opportunities across two games.

“Definitely is frustrating. You want to score on the power play and it [stinks], but I think over the last little while we’ve been kind of growing a foundation,” Frost said. “… A couple of mistakes, but I thought we created some good looks and I think sometimes when you’re kind of snapping it around out there, it can translate to the five-on-five game.”

It’s a fair point by Frost, as the time on the power play does keep the opposition on its heels. But facing a team that had lost its last five, the Flyers should have run amok on the Coyotes. Arizona does have talent, as Tortorella said, but by not scoring on their man advantage, it also “made a little bit more difficult for us.”

Scott Laughton is going streaking. So is Konecny.

For Konecny, it’s expected. He scored and had two assists to extend his point streak to four games (three goals, four assists). The 2024 NHL All-Star now has 49 points in 54 games and is just six goals shy of his career high of 31. And once again he was one of the Flyers’ best players, even when the team’s energy dipped.

Laughton has had a bit of an up-and-down season. But the last two games have seen him elevate his play — and, for the record, he hasn’t taken a bad penalty in either. The wily veteran had the game-winner on a neat wraparound, along with an assist, against the Coyotes, after breaking a seven-game goal drought on Saturday when the Seattle Kraken were in town.

“Yeah, it’s awesome,” Konecny said about seeing Laughton getting on the score sheet. “But the thing with Laughty is, I think you’re talking numbers, but he’s always effective for us. Whether it’s blocking shots, just creating opportunities with hard work, he’s always been doing that. It’s great to see him getting rewarded.”

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At one point it looked like Laughton may have been done for the night. He blocked a shot by Sean Durzi — looked like the inside of the right leg — during a penalty kill in the first period and was hobbled on the ice before he could get off almost 30 seconds later.

Laughton went straight to the tunnel but stayed a few feet away from the bench for a few minutes. At one point it looked like he was going to head to the locker room, but he quickly turned around and gave the legs a test run during the TV timeout. He was good from that moment on.

“It’s the intangible Laughts brings to us,” Tortorella said. “It’s so important as far as the locker room is concerned, and he gets rewarded, right? He keeps on playing. He’s a guy that has some minutes, doesn’t have minutes. He just keeps on staying about it and scores a really big goal, kills a couple of big penalties for us. He’s an important guy that way.”

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But what has changed for Laughton?

“I think since the break, I’ve started moving my legs a little bit better, anticipating plays and just not thinking,” he said. “It’s a big part of the game, the mental side of it. I felt like I was on the ice all the time thinking if I’m doing something wrong and [now] just going out and playing and not thinking about anything. I think that’s when I’m at my best.”