The key to a Flyers turnaround? The numbers — and eye test — say it might be blocking more shots.

John Tortorella likes to look at the NHL’s 82-game schedule in segments.

The Flyers coach breaks the long season into 10- to 15-game chunks to analyze how things are going. “That’s going to be frightening,” the bench boss said about the opening block before the Flyers’ game in Boston.

After 12 games, the Flyers are 4-7-1, with two of those wins coming in the last week. Yes, things could be better. The shots on goal are low, the chemistry has been inconsistent, and the overall level of play needs to be elevated, but one statistic may be the root of all that ails the Flyers: blocked shots.

“I think when you see this team block shots, it’s playing to its identity‚” Tortorella said Saturday after the Flyers’ 3-0 loss to a struggling Boston Bruins squad. “It’s a team that’s being hard, it’s a team that is willing to do that. I think that has been very inconsistent as the beginning of the year has started here.”

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Tortorella expanded on his answer, talking about the past few games and how the Flyers have been up and down in terms of how hard he thought his group played. And then Tortorella wrapped it up with an interesting take:

“Something has to happen as far as puck control and having the puck more in the offensive zone for us to get a full game in, for us to be a complete team,” he said. “So, I don’t know if shots blocked transforms into that; I think shots blocked transformed into our mindset as far as how hard you have to play.”

Our mindset.

Playing hard and — we’ll say it — playing gritty are hallmarks of the Flyers organization since the days of the Broad Street Bullies. It’s also part of every Tortorella team. During his tenure with the New York Rangers, the team was known to be a shot-blocking machine; over his four full seasons, New York ranked fourth in the NHL (4,588).

And he has brought that same mentality with him to the Flyers. Tortorella is in his third season, and the Flyers finished each of the first two in second place in the NHL in blocks — 1,411 shots blocked in 2022-23, and 1,533 last season. The Flyers are second in blocks in the NHL since Tortorella took over through Saturday games (3,163).

Through the first 12 games of this season, the Flyers have 219 blocked shots (18.10 blocks per 60 minutes). It’s better than last season’s numbers through the first 12 games (178 and 14.79), but lower than 2022-23 (238 and 19.61). Two outlier games have helped the Orange and Black’s numbers this season: 28 blocked shots in their win over the Bruins on Tuesday, and another 24 in their win over the St. Louis Blues on Thursday.

But look at the losses, especially four of the last five. They didn’t even reach a baker’s dozen with 12 blocks against the Vancouver Canucks, Washington Capitals, and Montreal Canadiens at home, plus only 11 on the road against the Capitals.

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In their four wins this season, the Flyers have averaged 23.5 shots blocked, with their one overtime loss — 4-3 to the Edmonton Oilers in Game 3 of the season — seeing 21 shots stopped before reaching the goalie. On the flip side, the team is averaging just 14.86 blocked shots in its seven losses.

That’s a drastic drop-off. And only one of those games saw the team break the 20-shots-blocked mark, the 6-4 loss to the Seattle Kraken on Oct. 17.

So why the focus on blocked shots? Without even delving into the numbers, the eye test will tell you the Flyers have big problems up and down the ice. For most of the season, they have been “disconnected” for 200 feet. The flow to their game is missing. Could it really be that simple? Probably not, but when you watch games, and the Flyers play to their identity with a hard-nosed style, statistically shown by more than 20 blocked shots in a game, everything seems to come together.

“I think when we’re blocking pucks, it keeps the bench involved,” forward Owen Tippett said. “Obviously, guys build off that, and it’s another chance to build momentum. And, obviously, you want to try and block as many shots as you can and take the workload off the goalies.

“We want to play as best we can in front of them and, obviously, it’s something that I don’t think we did enough early on in the year. I think the last couple games we’ve been blocking more, and I think it’s leading into our game. It puts energy on our bench, and guys are building off it, and you see more guys buying in.”

The buy-in is critical for the Flyers. Across all three seasons under Tortorella, when they block close to (or more than) 20 shots, they tend to earn at least a point. When they block closer to 15 or fewer, they usually lose.

“They’re blocking the right shots too,” goalie Sam Ersson said after the Flyers’ win over St. Louis. “They’re not trying to get in front of everything. They’re knowing kind of what shots they can leave to me. And I think that’s huge. And it builds chemistry between me and the guys in front of me.”

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What about at the other end of the ice? The Flyers are not an offensive juggernaut — they finished the past two seasons ranked 29th and 27th, respectively, in goals per game and are currently tied for 28th. But the one thing that stands out is that when they block shots, they not only allow fewer goals, they also score more — a lot more, to be fair — and they have more time at five-on-five.

Maybe when you’re blocking shots and falling into the mindset of playing hard, things click elsewhere. Feet are constantly moving to be ready to block a puck and, if it’s not a block, to move it. If the feet are moving, there’s a lesser chance of getting called for penalties like holding, hooking, and tripping because you’re next to your guy and not needing to slow them down to stay in the play.

“When you don’t have the puck, you’ve got to dedicate yourself defensively and be in shot lanes and cut passing lanes,” captain Sean Couturier said. “You want to have the puck to really have some [offensive]-zone time, have puck possession, and generate some offense. So I just feel we’re maybe chasing it a little bit throughout the games.”

Whether or not Tortorella wanted to buy into the idea that blocking shots results in action at the other end, the statistics show that when the Flyers are playing their brand of hockey — with a major emphasis on laying their bodies on the line — they win games.

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Ersson, who was injured in Saturday’s game against the Bruins, summed it up perfectly on Thursday.

“This is how we have to play, and we know that,” he said. “I think you can kind of sense it. Like when we’re blocking shots, when we’re doing the small things right, you can kind of feel it on the bench and on the ice that we’re rolling. I think that gives us confidence, and we know that we’re a very good team when we play like this.”