The Philadelphia Flyers are in a downward spiral right now. They came into this season seen as a potential lottery team but they proved everyone wrong with their play.
By December, it was clear that nothing about them was a fluke. However, here in April, it is clear that the young team is having a hard time closing this thing out.
On Monday night, they lost to the New York Islanders in overtime. One of the only reasons they got to overtime was because of their magical game-tying goal with 9.6 seconds left in regulation.
In overtime, the Islanders got the win but the Flyers were lucky to even get a point in the game because their effort was so poor.
The Philadelphia Flyers had a terrible game against the New York Islanders
Sam Ersson was the starter for the Flyers in this one but John Tortorella pulled him early. That allowed him to put Ivan Fedotov into the net for the first time in his NHL career.
Nobody thought that Fedotov's NHL debut would look like that but it did. He impressed by making 19 saves on 21 shots as a cold goalie coming into the game without expecting that to be the case.
The team also played very poorly in front of him. They were bad in the first period and even worse in the second game. He is the other reason that they were able to salvage at least a point because the rest of the team was terrible. He should be proud of his first game. His first career start should be coming soon.
After the game, Tortorella was rightfully upset. He spoke to the media about how soft the team was and that they were learning things about certain players in games like this. He claimed that the only player that showed up was Fedotov.
Torts with an ALL-TIME indictment of the team’s 2nd period performance in the postgame presser 😳
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) April 2, 2024
(via @NHLFlyers) pic.twitter.com/NjVflxhlkU
To be honest, he isn't wrong. This was a pathetic effort for a team fighting for a postseason berth. You have to play better, especially against a team like the New York Islanders who are trying to take their playoff spot.
We'll see if this rant from Torts does any good for the team. His tactics this season have worked well and he is relying on this one to do some work for him as well. Their next chance will come on Friday when they hit the road to play the Buffalo Sabres. This is a must-win.