The Flyers are struggling mightily at five-on-five. A lack of chemistry and line continuity is part of the problem.

WASHINGTON ― Whether or not John Tortorella owns a Ninja, he definitely knows how to use a blender.

The Flyers coach has been putting his forwards into the machine — and breaking out his lineup sheet to jot down changes — often.

Since the season opener, the forward lines have seen a constant mixing. Sometimes it was a line or two to start the game. Sometimes it was all four lines. And a lot of times there have been changes throughout a game.

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But it‘s not as if Tortorella is just doing it for fun. There are glaring reasons for getting all mixed up, such as the Flyers’ limited time at five-on-five due to penalties taken and drawn. The grizzled bench boss knows his team needs to “have the proper mindset of how this game is called now and concentrate on that, because it has really put us in a situation in the early games here, of trying to get any flow within our game.” Indeed. The Flyers, entering Wednesday night, have skated at five-on-five for only 42 minutes, 36 seconds — the lowest amount in the NHL.

“We need to stay out of the box so we can get some flow and allow ourselves to get to our game and that is playing more in the offensive zone, allowing our D to step up,” he said. “And we‘re trying to play forward; it‘s hard to play forward when you’re killing penalties, and it also takes a lot of energy out of our penalty killers as we’ve gone through this. It’s something we haven’t gone through in the past couple years because we’ve been a pretty disciplined team. It’s just happened that way in the first few games here and we need to correct that.”

When the Flyers do skate at five-on-five, Tortorella sees a team that is flat in the neutral zone and not backchecking effectively. Because of that, despite the Flyers being defensively focused, they are struggling to find the transition game that made them so successful last season.

“We’re just not to our identity at all,” Tortorella said. “I think last year we were one of the top teams in the offensive zone. We’re not there because of the A before B. We have no depth, no tracking, no support, as far as us jamming the neutral zone. So that just allows teams to play through us, and they spend time in our end zone.

“When you are having a struggle like this, you can look at a lot of different things that are going on with your team. I’m looking at one thing — how we track, and if we track the proper way, I think other things will get solved.”

But while captain Sean Couturier said Tuesday night a lot of the line changes are a result of special teams playing large chunks of games, the lines will be rejiggered again as winger Tyson Foerster returns after being a healthy scratch for Tuesday night’s 4-1 loss to the Washington Capitals at the Wells Fargo Center. Meanwhile, winger Bobby Brink will sit for the first time this season.

Where Foerster fits in will be interesting. He notched 20 goals as a rookie but has not found his offensive spark this season, with only one power-play goal to date. He has skated with Couturier and Brink, with Jett Luchanko (who is not in the lineup again) and Brink, Owen Tippett and Ryan Poehling, and Tippett and Morgan Frost. That’s a lot of different linemates.

Tortorella said there is no panic on his part despite the struggles at five-on-five — the Flyers have scored just six goals. Across six games to start the season, they’ve also been out-chanced, with a minus-32 differential.

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The Flyers offense has been especially stagnant with one goal in the last two games and a league-worst 13 goals across six games (tied with the New York Islanders). The team’s top six forwards entering the season — Travis Konecny, Tippett, Morgan Frost, Couturier, Foerster, and Matvei Michkov — have combined for just one five-on-five goal thus far; Konecny’s tally vs. Calgary on Oct. 12. Tippett, Frost, and Couturier have yet to score at any strength.

“I think one of the most important things is that we all keep our composure, but understand a huge part of our game isn’t consistent,” Tortorella said.

“I think we have a good team,” he added. “I think we know how we have to play. We just haven’t done it consistently enough.”

Ivan Fedotov will get a chance at redemption Wednesday against the Capitals. The 6-foot-7 goalie has struggled to find his game since coming over from the Kontinental Hockey League in April and has allowed five goals in each of his two starts this season. ... Former Flyers goalie Michael Leighton will be inducted into the American American Hockey League’s Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2025. Leighton played parts of four seasons with the Phantoms and is the AHL’s all-time leader in shutouts. Of his 50 career shutouts, seven were with the Flyers farm team.