Before we get started, let's get one thing straight. The Philadelphia Flyers are not supposed to be a good team. Despite nearly making the playoffs last season, they are nowhere near ready to contend with the top teams in the league.
Even so, you want to see a competitive team on the ice that won't go down without a fight. And for the most part, the Flyers have been anything but that. While they showed energy against the Capitals in their last game, they had to go down 4-0 before they were able to. They've held leads in other games, but haven't been able to sustain them.
There are a multitude of reasons that can be used as to why the Flyers have lost six straight and haven't been a competitive team at times. They are one of the youngest teams in the league and don't have much experience. With an average age of 26.3, Philadelphia has the third youngest roster in the league. While they boast a fair amount of veterans, most of their core is under the age of 25.
Their backup goaltending has been questionable. Sam Ersson has excelled this season and is not even close to the problem with the Flyers. Ivan Fedotov, while improving in his last game, has not given the Flyers what they hoped for from the backup position. Fedotov is still in search of his first NHL win. His 5.35 GAA has a lot to do with that.
The defense has been struggling, while the offense hasn't been able to generate a ton of dangerous chances. The list goes on and on, but there is one topic of interest that has plenty of people talking. And it has to do with John Tortorella.
Is the constant line shuffling messing with the Flyers' chemistry?
Entering play on Wednesday, the Flyers iced 18 different forward line combinations. The Athletic's Kevin Kurz did all of the work for us on what those lines have looked like.
And yes I did check this a few times pic.twitter.com/BSSnR2Ju2y
— Kevin Kurz (@KKurzNHL) October 23, 2024
Add five more combinations to that list after Wednesday's game. In case you were wondering, the Flyers' best trio that night was Scott Laughton, Morgan Frost, and Garnet Hathaway. They posted a 100 CF% in 1:43 of ice time together.
Anyway, that's a lot of different combinations to put out on the ice. It's fair to wonder if players cannot develop chemistry together when they are unsure who their next linemates may be. Switching up the lines isn't a Tortorella thing. Every coach in the NHL will try to mix and match to find the trios that work well together. Tortorella tends to let the players have adequate time together to develop chemistry.
With the constant struggles and the losses piling up, Tortorella has been trying anything to get the Flyers to click. But is his attempts to help them hurting them? Likely not.
Aside from Matvei Michkov, and Jett Luchanko, this group of forwards has played together before this year. They know each other's games and shouldn't need multiple games to develop with each other. If they do? Then there's a much different problem here. While one could argue that the lines need to stay the same for a few games, that shouldn't have a huge effect on how this team plays.
Yes, it would be nice to see Tortorella stick with the same groups and let them figure things out themselves. This team isn't going anywhere for a few years. There isn't a rush to turn them into a contender. But with a team desperate for wins early in the season, you also can't sit there and let the losses pile up.
On the list of problems the Flyers have, the line combinations are far down it when it comes to what has been hurting this team.