John Tortorella showed his frustration with his short postgame comments. But was it all bad vs. the Hurricanes?
Tortorella's presser after the Flyers' 6-4 loss lasted just 25 seconds, as he said he was "not going to dissect it.”
John Tortorella’s postgame press conference on Tuesday lasted 25 seconds.
Did you see enough progress in the game, a 6-4 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes? “No,” the Flyers coach said.
Was it good to see guys like Morgan Frost and Owen Tippett, who have struggled, get on the board? “Yep.”
What was it about the game that you didn’t like? “I’m not going to dissect it.”
Thoughts on Aleksei Kolosov’s play? “OK.”
After 13 games, countless video sessions, and drills on the ice, the grizzled bench boss had maybe seen enough.
The Flyers (4-8-1) officially are in the NHL’s basement, tied with the Nashville Predators at nine points as of Wednesday morning. A silver lining is they had just one more win at this mark last season (5-7-1), but the vibes feel much different now. Although the penalty kill is better (79.5% to 88.9%) and the power play is exponentially better (8.9% to 20%), the Flyers are struggling to score and stop the other team from scoring, especially at five-on-five.
But looking back after Tortorella’s first short presser of the season, a trademark of his when his team is struggling, was his frustration warranted?
Two reasons why Tortorella’s presser was short and angry
Squandering a point late: The Flyers were within mere seconds of snatching an important point to start their three-game road trip — 31 seconds, to be exact. But the Hurricanes getting a win probably was expected going in. After all, they had only two losses in their first 10 games and were on a six-game winning streak.
All the Flyers had to do was weather the storm, but they got stuck in their end facing a torrent. From around the two-minute mark, the Hurricanes battered the Flyers and kept the five-man unit of Morgan Frost, Bobby Brink, Tyson Foerster, Travis Sanheim, and Rasmus Ristolainen on the ice. They were penned in and faced a swirling attack that produced five shot attempts, including the game-winner by Martin Necas.
» READ MORE: Aleksei Kolosov wanted an NHL shot. With Sam Ersson out injured, he has it.
“I thought I missed another open net out there,” Frost said about his first goal of the season, which tied it, 3-3. “... At the same time, not really thinking about that right now. I think I could have done a much better job on that last shift where they scored the goal. So that’s what I’m thinking about right now.”
Few shots ... again: Once again the Flyers struggled to find the net. After putting 10 shots on goal in the first period — two more than the Hurricanes — they had just six the rest of the way. But at least they scored on half of them.
It shouldn’t shock anyone that Carolina poured 34 shots on Kolosov; it entered the night leading the NHL in shots per game (35.9). The Flyers were ranked 30th at 25.7. — now down to 24.9 — and, as noted above, that’s way down from last season.
To make matters worse on Tuesday, according to Natural Stat Trick, the Flyers were outchanced, 86-36, with just eight chances in the third period. It didn’t seem like the ice was that tilted across all 60 minutes, but the stats don’t lie.
Two reasons why Tortorella‘s presser was harsh
The forecheck was better: Was the forecheck perfect? No. But for weeks, the Flyers have struggled to find it at any point. The starting line of Sean Couturier, Foerster, and Matvei Michkov set the tone Tuesday.
The job of the first line is to get the puck deep and score or get a faceoff deep in the opposition’s zone. The trio and the new defensive pairing of Travis Sanheim and Jamie Drysdale started strongly. They created a turnover, put pressure on the Hurricanes deep, and got a shot on goal by Foerster.
“I think we [went] up to their level,” Tippett said. “Obviously, they’re a good team at home, and they play quick. It’s one of those things where we’re not playing on our toes and we’re not ready. It can go bad pretty quickly. So, like I said, pretty [expletive] way to lose, but I thought we took some good strides.”
As the night wore on, it came in waves. but the best example of the forecheck working was on Travis Konecny’s second goal. The winger pressured Hurricanes defenseman Jalen Chatfield, causing him to turn over the puck leading to the goal. When the forecheck is going, it works.
“I think everyone, just as a group, is trying to get going,” Konecny said. “You know, there was some good stuff to build off tonight, and it’s just too bad. We’re looking for the two points, and we didn’t get any.”
The good news is that Konecny, Frost, and Tippett scored — three players who need to get going for the Flyers to turn this around.
Kolosov didn’t look bad: The Flyers’ goaltending continues to try to find its footing, but in his second NHL start, Kolosov was actually “OK,” like Tortorella said.
Sure, the young Belarusian allowed five goals, but outside of the Eric Robinson goal — the Hurricanes forward hails from Bellmawr and played at Gloucester Catholic — the others are debatable where the blame falls.
Kolosov spoke after his relief appearance on Saturday about still learning how to deal with the net-front traffic that is prevalent in the NHL and not used often in the Kontinental Hockey League. He seemed to be sharp on Tuesday, especially when scrambling on pucks in front.
Jackson Blake made it 1-1 after he was left alone in front when Egor Zamula went behind the net and the Flyers had two players below the goal line on the passer, Jack Drury. Can’t really blame Kolosov there when a player is left wide-open — and most coaches will tell you to leave a player alone behind the net because, generally speaking, they’re not scoring from back there.
Jordan Martinook made it 3-1 Carolina after he wasn’t tied up properly by Emil Andrae in front. The forward then tapped in the loose puck after Kolosov made a good save. On the 4-3 goal by Jack Roslovic, Kolosov made a good initial save on a Sebastian Aho breakaway, but Roslovic again was left alone to clean up the rebound. And on the game-winner from Necas, on a long shift, Sanheim failed to clear the puck from the front before the forward pounced.
Every goalie is going to let in a bad one here and there. But when a team is struggling to tickle the twine the other way, it gets amplified. For what it’s worth, the 22-year-old netminder made seven saves on 11 high-danger shots.
And look at this heat map. He didn’t have much of a chance.