The Flyers’ collapse probably made their long rebuild longer

Man, this Flyers season went to Orange and Blech in a hurry. Eight straight losses, a playoff berth burped up, questions galore about the roster and the coach and the future … I’m not saying that their collapse has been similar to the Eagles’, but Drew Lock just scored again for Montreal, and sources tell me James Bradberry will get the start in goal Thursday night against the New York Rangers.

Hey, if Flyers fans can’t laugh in situations like this, their only other option is to bury their faces in the hairy belly of a paprika-colored mascot and start bawling. Through 71 games, this team was shaping up to be the most pleasant surprise in the NHL. John Tortorella was wringing every drop of effort and shot-blocking courage out of a roster that was short of superstars, and it appeared that he, general manager Danny Brière, and team president Keith Jones would complete an important step in their rebuilding plan — surveying the players who were here and separating the keepers from the wannabes — with the welcome bonus of qualifying for the postseason. Even if a superior opponent wiped out Torts’ overachievers in the first round, the up-and-comers in the room would learn some hard but necessary lessons, and a couple of playoff games at the Wells Fargo Center would remind everyone of what April used to be like around here, back when the Flyers were relevant.

» READ MORE: Embarrassment, a withering chase for the playoffs, and other Flyers takeaways from a bad night in Montreal

Except here they are now, pretty much locked out of the postseason, and the vibes are no longer immaculate, and the cold reality that was easy to overlook a few weeks ago is harder to ignore. All of the following things and more either happened to the Flyers or because of the Flyers this season: Their once-presumptive franchise goaltender, Carter Hart, is facing a sexual assault charge and will likely never play for them again. Cutter Gauthier — their former top prospect, the player who was supposed to be the elite goal scorer they’ve long lacked — decided he didn’t want to play for them, and they traded him for Jamie Drysdale, a young defenseman who already has a lengthy injury history. Their captain, Sean Couturier, who is in the second year of an eight-year, $62 million contract, was benched. And in this recent losing streak, they have lost to the Canadiens (twice), the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Buffalo Sabres, and the Chicago Blackhawks, all of whom are among the nine worst clubs in the NHL. The cumulative score of those five losses: 28-9.

In a brief phone interview Wednesday morning, Jones acknowledged that the team’s free fall has been painful to experience but pushed the view that the season has been, on the whole, a positive development. “It happens,” he said. “It’s a terrible thing to go through. But there has been a lot of progress made under adverse circumstances. It’s going to take time. We’ve been clear about that from the start. There’s been a lot of growth.”

What effect did Tortorella’s decision to bench Couturier have on the team?

“I don’t think it’s as big a deal as it was made out to be,” Jones said. “Sean’s play had to get better, and it will. We need the first-half Sean Couturier to be an effective team.”

Did Tortorella, famous (or infamous, depending on how one looks at it) for his hard-driving approach, push his players past their breaking points? Did he keep his foot on the gas pedal until the needle dropped to E?

“Running out of gas is, in my mind, not coach-related,” Jones said. “It was more injury-related than it was Torts-related.”

So his opinion of Tortorella — that he is the right coach for this club — hasn’t changed?

“No.”

There is a case to be made, a Sam Hinkie-style, analytically oriented case, that by losing so much lately the Flyers have merely regressed to their mean, that they have finally become the team they were always destined to be this season. Jones pointed to the deadline trade of defenseman Sean Walker as a move that depleted the roster at an already thin position, and since the Flyers got a conditional first-round draft pick in return, the trade made sense from a long-term perspective — the only perspective that should matter to the Flyers at the moment. Jones is right. This rebuild is going to take a while, and it was always going to take a while.

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

But it’s fair to wonder whether there will be other ramifications to this breakdown that will turn out to be just as consequential and not nearly as beneficial. The Flyers already had plenty of questions. Now they have more. The Tortorella-Couturier relationship seems at least a reason for concern. Travis Konecny is probably going to sign a multiyear extension; can he stay healthy and productive for the duration of such a deal? Scott Laughton, Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost — these players once thought to be fixtures now have futures here that are uncertain at best.

The problem with waiting until the Flyers have played their 82nd game before evaluating or judging them is that a season is a journey, and the journey matters. It’s not enough to write off this kitchen fire of a finish by rationalizing that the Flyers weren’t supposed to be good anyway. Like Tortorella said not long ago, “We’re here,” and then, poof, they weren’t. Changes were coming one way or another this offseason. Now, though, Brière and Jones have to examine the conditions that created this embarrassing closing stretch, ask themselves, What the heck really happened here?, and answer honestly. They should start by contemplating a tough truth. No joke: A long rebuild might have just gotten longer.