John Tortorella unimpressed with win; Travis Konecny records Gordie Howe hat trick

John Tortorella walked into the press room on Thursday night after the Flyers’ 4-1 win against the Winnipeg Jets.

In case you were wondering how he thought it went, he walked out 63 seconds later.

His first response set the tone:

Q: What did you see in the second and third?

A: Nothing.

Oof.

The first period was a barnburner for his crew as they skated out to a 3-0 lead. And they didn’t allow a goal to the Jets until there were 5 minutes, 12 seconds left in the game. The Flyers had a 71.79% Corsi For in the first period across all strengths, per Natural Stat Trick. Great. They were held to 24% of the shot attempts over the final two periods. Woof.

» READ MORE: Flyers center Ryan Poehling is betting on himself and his ‘tremendous speed’

Q: How do you evaluate the game?

A: Win the game. Won the game. Got two points. That’s how I evaluate it.

Indeed.

Tortorella may not have been long-winded with his thoughts on the game but that doesn’t mean there aren’t things to dissect. Here are three takeaways from the Flyers’ win.

Travis Konecny may not want to be known as a “rat” these days and that’s fine. But when the Flyers’ top scorer plays with an edge he is oftentimes the best guy on the ice. He mucked it up with one of the game’s biggest rats, Matthew Tkachuk, on Tuesday in Florida — and scored a goal.

» READ MORE: The Flyers’ Travis Konecny has blossomed from ‘rat’ into one of the NHL’s top goal scorers

He followed that up on Thursday with his second-career Gordie Howe hat trick.

“As far as leadership I find that, for me, it’s not so much talking, I just try to work hard on the ice and do what I can maybe energy-wise [and] work ethic,” Konecny said. “I wasn’t trying to fight for any reason. It just kind of happened, I mean, it is what it is. Maybe if it’s sparked us, I’m not sure but, you know, I was just kind of more in my head that I did that.”

The All-Star forward notched his 24th goal of the season off the body of Neal Pionk on a broken play — a guy he dropped the gloves with exactly eight minutes prior. His assist to Morgan Frost came 4:03 after he gave the Flyers a 2-0 lead. And then he took exception to a late shot at the buzzer.

“It’s always infectious when your top scorer is going to be able to fight guys. That was pretty cool to see,” center Ryan Poehling said. “I knew TK played with some tenacity and whatnot but to see him do that it shows that he’s a good leader of this team and a good guy to follow.”

Everyone knows the Flyers are a team that is strong off the rush — and they did it twice against the Jets. Poehling set up Tyson Foerster to open up the scoring and then scored his own goal, a short-handed goal down the right side after a Winnipeg miscue, to make it 4-0.

While it’s great to get guys like Konecny going — he had one goal in 11 games before the break — the Flyers will need to get their bottom-six, er, bottom-five (because the team goes with 11 forwards and seven defensemen these days) raring to go as the final third of the season heats up.

The top two lines of Sean Couturier centering Owen Tippett and Cam Atkinson, and Morgan Frost sandwiched between Joel Farabee and Konecny, drive the bus. While the Frost line scored a goal and had a Corsi For of 53.85% at five-on-five, the Couturier line was only at 44.44%, according to Natural Stat Trick. It’s imperative that when those lines aren’t dialed in, the depth guys can step up.

“I think Poehls’ line [Poehling, Foerster, and Noah Cates] was great to tonight. Frosty’s line makes a ton of plays entering the zone and [Couturier], you know what he’s going to bring and that line,” said center Scott Laughton. “I thought the balance in our lines and the way the guys bring it goes a long way. Especially guys blocking shots and things like that. So, [if] we continue that, we’ll win a lot of games. But, last 40 minutes probably, well we definitely need to clean it up.”

» READ MORE: Flyers center Ryan Poehling is betting on himself and his ‘tremendous speed’

Entering Thursday night, the Flyers were 11-12-2 at home. By comparison, the road record is 15-7-4. Great for road trippin’ — not so great for the Philly faithful.

Yes, Tortorella may have been unimpressed by his group, but the hometown fans certainly were not. After the final buzzer, the 18,049 in attendance let out a roar that rocked the press box. The last time the fans saw a win at Wells Fargo Center was Jan. 18, when the team topped another Stanley Cup contender, the Dallas Stars.

» READ MORE: Flyers coach John Tortorella loves reading your mail — as long as you’re not ‘an idiot’

“I think when we’re at our best we’re a hard-working team who works together and we block a lot of shots, play with speed ... and when we play like that we’re a tough team to play against,” said goaltender Sam Ersson, who made 28 saves — 25 over the final two periods.

The Flyers certainly showcased speed at times and finished with 22 blocked shots. As Laughton said, they play a simple road game and they need to translate that at home. They did that for the most part and the fans saw it, which helped to spark the team.

“It was awesome. I thought they were loud all night again and when TK fought there early in the game I thought it gave us a lot of jump and we carried it over,” Laughton said. “It’s good to have that energy in the building.”