Amid all the tanking talk, the Flyers are playing their best hockey of the season — for better or for worse

John Tortorella can feel the haters out there, begging him and his team to tank. But after beating the Arizona Coyotes 6-2 on Thursday night, the Flyers are now on a four-game winning streak and within two wins of .500 at 15-17-7.

The Flyers coach said that while he doesn’t read articles about his team, he knows there are articles being written saying that the organization just needs to tank. He can tell from the “aura” around the team.

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But whatever the best outcome is for the future of the organization, the best outcome for the players currently on the team is to win and keep playing well. Tanking is for front-office people and the media. Coaches and players, meanwhile, have jobs to do and take pride in doing them. Many of them are playing for roles and future contracts. Just look at the career season Travis Konecny is having, with 20 goals and 40 points through 33 games. Or how Carter Hart has stood tall amid a barrage of shots to the tune of a .911 save percentage.

Since the start of the season, the Flyers have shown progress. They’re forechecking better, playing more within the system, and making smarter passes. But until recently, they weren’t getting the results. Tortorella recognized the progress and made sure to commend it, but even he got frustrated at times that the players’ efforts weren’t yielding more victories.

As much as the losses weighed on him, they weighed heavier on the players, according to Tortorella. He said these players “qualify themselves” by how much they win. And until Dec. 29, amid a stretch of 19 losses in 23 games, that meant they were qualifying themselves as a spiraling 11-17-7 team.

Now, they’re a 15-17-7 team and three points away from breaking out of the league’s bottom 10. They are also two wins and three points better this season than they were through 39 games last season.

They can take pride in their hard work; the fact they’ve stuck together even when times have gotten tough; and their four-game win streak, a feat they haven’t accomplished in two years. The players can also take pride in the fact that they’re doing it without several of their most important players and leaders.

Last year, the team was without second-line center Kevin Hayes (abdominal), first-pair defenseman Ryan Ellis (pelvis) and Derick Brassard (hip) for much of the season. By January of last year, they were also down top-line center Sean Couturier due to a back injury that would require season-ending surgery. There were multiple other players in and out. However, they did have Cam Atkinson and Claude Giroux.

While Hayes returned healthy for this season, Couturier and Ellis did not, Giroux and Brassard are on different teams, and Atkinson has been shut down for the season with a neck injury. The Flyers have been left captain-less with 28-year-old Scott Laughton the longest-tenured healthy Flyer deputizing. Outside of their fourth line, two-thirds of the team’s forwards are age 25 and under.

The problem with tanking (other than that the draft lottery means tanking doesn’t necessarily guarantee a top pick) is that if any of the team’s current young players are going to be part of the future, they need to build their own games and learn to win so they can support the young prospects when they reach the NHL. While bottoming out and hopefully landing a top pick is still probably best for the organization in the long run, Tortorella and the players in the locker room are focused on getting better and continuing to build a culture.

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The locker room has stuck together through the struggles. That’s one thing Tortorella has continuously been impressed with, especially when you consider how things went last season. Even amid multiple losing streaks, they’ve continued to support each other and play with consistent effort.

But the losses take a toll, and that’s become even more clear now that the team is winning. The difference in their body language is so obvious to Tortorella. One example stuck out to Tortorella in particular. Last weekend against the Los Angeles Kings, Rasmus Ristolainen blocked a shot, finished a hit, and then blocked a second shot, sending the bench into a frenzy of cheering and shouting. It was fun, and it was a feeling the team hasn’t experienced much this season.

It’s the first time many of the young players are experiencing that feeling in their Flyers careers. Morgan Frost, 23, who had four points Thursday and now has 13 points in his last 10 games, has only had a small taste of winning. Owen Tippett, 23, who has the second-most goals on the team with 12, joined the Flyers at the end of last year when they finished 6-15. Cam York, 22, and Noah Cates, 23, haven’t experienced anything but losing at the NHL level. Only 22-year-old Joel Farabee, who has been on the team the longest among that group, has really seen both the ups and downs.

The stretch gets much harder from here. Whereas the Flyers just played three of the league’s worst teams in San Jose, Anaheim, and Arizona, over the next three games they will face two of the league’s top teams in the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Washington Capitals.

But if the players qualify themselves simply in wins and losses, then they’re on a hot streak and can use that as a confidence boost as they go into the second half of the season. Fans and media members clamoring for a rebuild might not like it, but don’t expect Tortorella and the players to care.

» READ MORE: As confident as ever, Flyers’ Morgan Frost working to prove he can be a consistent NHL threat