
VOORHEES, N.J. – If there’s such a thing as a turning point to a season this early in the schedule, it may have happened in the second half of Wednesday night’s game at Washington.
The Flyers appeared to be getting blown out by the Capitals as the score reached 4-0. The Flyers were already in an 0-4-1 winless streak and nobody would have blinked if the players were watching the clock as the second period came to a close.
Then a funny thing happened. Without hardly any verbal encouragement from their coach, John Tortorella, the Flyers flipped a switch and suddenly it was 4-2. It might have been one goal closer than that but a Morgan Frost breakaway shot was stopped at the goal line.
The push continued in the third period when Matvei Michkov scored to make it 4-3. Although the Flyers eventually lost the game, the takeaway from the encounter was the players themselves had generated the energy for the comeback, not the coach.
After Friday’s practice at the Flyers Training Center, Tortorella acknowledged that it was encouraging to witness this sort of accountability without a lot of provocation from the bench boss.
“That’s what that room is all about,” Tortorella said. “I have made no bones about it, that’s a good locker room. They don’t like being in the situation they’re in.
“The coaches, we’ve talked enough. When you start talking too much in these types of situations, you’re being disrespectful to the players, quite honestly. They know what they have to do. When I go to sleep I rest easy knowing that we have a good room there. I think that’s a really important part of it in this time where we’re at to help us get out.”
Captain Sean Couturier is the emotional leader of this team and he saw positive signs on Wednesday night even if the game did not have a favorable result.
“When we start simplifying our game, putting more pucks to the net we create a lot more,” Couturier said. “We have a lot of skill on our team but we can’t just rely on that, beating guys one-on-one. More times, you’re not going to make that play.
“I think just by simplifying our game, it will eventually open up other things. We just have to focus on that. We’ve shown in stretches this year we’re a really good hockey team. It seems like we’re just shooting ourselves in the foot sometime. Overall, maybe it looks worse than it is. We just have to make sure we pay attention to detail for 60 minutes.”
The Flyers know they have to get things turned around, even if it’s quite early in the season.
“You don’t want to be chasing all year,” Couturier said. “Looking from the outside in. It just makes it just that much harder in the long run. We definitely have to turn it around real quick.”
The Flyers have a big weekend of hockey coming up, with a home game against Minnesota on Saturday afternoon and another Wells Fargo Center game on Sunday night vs. Montreal.
If these are successful ventures, Scott Laughton believes some of the confidence will start with Wednesday night’s game at D.C.
“I thought we took over the game,” Laughton said. “We started being more predictable to each other. I think that’s huge. Our forecheck was a lot better. We were winning puck battles and playing simple, kind of like last year. We weren’t turning over pucks as much. We have to stay on that track and I think we will. Guys care. It’s not like we’re getting blown out of games. It will be good to follow up here.”
>Laughton’s a dad
Laughton and his wife, Chloe, experienced the joy of parenthood a couple days ago when they welcomed new son, Reed Leo Laughton, into the world. The Flyers were in the midst of a home-and-away, back-to-back with the Capitals, which made for some interesting travel accommodations with the Flyers alternate captain.
Tortorella made sure the team did what it could for one of his favorite players.
“Torts was great with me, giving me some time here,” Laughton said. “He let me meet the team in Washington. So I was able to bring him (Reed Leo) home. It’s something I’ll never forget. Makes you emotional.”
>Farabee’s struggles
The Flyers have been shuffling their lines quite a bit in the first few weeks. Joel Farabee, who has only one goal with a minus-8, has been up and down the lineup. Tortorella said he spoke to Farabee after Friday’s practice.
“I’ve used Joel with a lot of different people,” Tortorella said. “Some of it falls on Joel, I watch his game. He turned the puck over quite a bit the last game, really untested, he wasn’t even checked.
“Was that because he wasn’t getting much ice time (just 12:56 per game this season after averaging about 17 minutes over the past three seasons)? I don’t know. He was great today. Everybody wants more ice time. But it’s ‘OK, can you give me something so I can give you more?’ I don’t have the answer to that. That’s always how a conversation goes when a player is struggling.”
>Short shots
Travis Konecny was held out of practice on Friday. He’s dealing with some sort of injury. Tortorella calls his status “day to day.” Cam York also had the day off.