Ivan Fedotov tabbed for first NHL start, Flyers look to raise their level vs. Sabres

BUFFALO, N.Y. — There’s a scene in one of the early episodes of the television show Letterkenny in which the hockey players, Jonesy and Reilly, are sitting in a locker room talking to Coach. Reilly, played by Dylan Playfair, says to him, “So what you’re saying is, we’re at this level,” while demarcating the line at his chin, “but we got to get to this level” as he holds his other hand near the top of his head.

In summation: this is what John Tortorella has pretty much told his team. The mindset has to be on point right now.

» READ MORE: Flyers say it’s the ‘perfect time’ to hit the road as they reach the final stretch

“We just need to be better, in everything we do. We’re taking on water here a little bit and this is a time of year that — even before we started 10 or 15 games ago talking about the seven games against the top teams — it’s the time of year everybody ramps up their game,” Tortorella said. “I think we did that. I think in that seven-game stretch, I think we left some points on the board, two or three points I thought we deserved. We didn’t get them. But we just haven’t been there the past few here, and I think we need to get there.”

The Flyers enter Friday’s game against the Buffalo Sabres (7 p.m. on NBCSP) on a five-game losing streak. The good news is two of those losses were in overtime, so they salvaged some points, and remain in third place in the Metropolitan Division by virtue of holding the regulation wins tiebreaker with the New York Islanders. The bad news is several teams are in striking distance — including the Sabres, who are six points back and are coming off a 6-2 thrashing of the Washington Capitals on Tuesday. Washington (one point, one game in hand), Detroit (one point, one game in hand, and Pittsburgh (two points) are all even tighter on the Flyers’ heels.

Friday night is the first of back-to-back road games, concluding with Saturday’s contest against the Columbus Blue Jackets. It begins the final countdown of the season, with just six regular-season games remaining for the Orange and Black.

“It’s easy to look at the standings and think of what we have to do to get to where we want to be,” winger Owen Tippett said. “The life we live is kind of just day to day and you got to focus on each game and control what you can control. You can’t be worried about even tomorrow night’s game before you get through tonight. So it’s just how it is. I think the more you take it day by day and focus game to game it makes it easier.”

Ivan Fedotov will make his first NHL start against the Sabres. He relieved Sam Ersson after the first period in Monday night’s 4-3 overtime loss to the New York Islanders and stopped 19 of 21 shots. The rookie netminder will face a Buffalo squad that is averaging 3.50 goals per game since March 9 (tied for 10th in the NHL) while putting the 13th most shots on goal (31.3).

» READ MORE: With Sam Ersson and Ivan Fedotov, the Flyers have some uncertainty in net. Feels like old times.

The Flyers have allowed the third-fewest shots against in that same time frame (25.4). They’ve poured on the seventh-most shots (32.0) but have mustered only 2.50 goals per game (27th). Regardless of the stats, the Flyers know they need to be a unified team on the ice.

“I think we all got to be connected. We all got to be on the same page,” center Morgan Frost said. “Especially this time of year, there’s no real room for solo missions, I guess you could call them. I think that’s why everyone talks about how we have such a great group in there, we stick together, and I think that’s what you’ll see these next couple of games.”

Erik Johnson returns to Buffalo for the first time since being acquired by the Flyers at the trade deadline. ... Egor Zamula skated with the healthy scratches on Friday and looks to be out, along with Adam Ginning, Ronnie Attard, Denis Gurianov, and Nic Deslauriers. ... On Friday, Sean Couturier was named the Flyers Masterton Trophy nominee by the Philadelphia chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association.