PHILADELPHIA – Technically, Flyers coach John Tortorella’s contract doesn’t run out until the end of next season.
However, if the team misses the postseason for the third straight season this year under Tortorella’s watch, there are bound to be rumors floating around.
Especially when the Flyers look like a team about to watch the Stanley Cup playoffs on television for a team record-tying five consecutive years.
One of the culprits for the ongoing struggles is the Flyers’ power play, which has finished at the bottom of the NHL the past three seasons and likely will place at least in the bottom five (as of Tuesday night 29th at 15.2 percent).
At Tuesday morning’s skate at the Flyers Training Center in Voorhees, N.J., Tortorella was asked if he believes the folks upstairs still have faith in what direction the power play, and the team, are going.
He initially responded by saying it’s not his job to have to break down his beliefs in his system to people outside the team.
“It’s not for me to try to explain it to try to gain faith from people,” Tortorella said. “The only people we’re concerned about are the people on the ice. As long as they keep listening and I think we have an attentive group, I think they care.”
A big part of the frustration is the imbalance in the power-play scoring. Travis Konecny has eight goals with the man advantage and rookie Matvei Michkov has seven. The rest of the entire roster? Just 11.
“If my general manager (Daniel Briere) says it’s not good enough – I can’t be worried about what you (the media) think and what the public thinks.
“If we worry about that stuff, it’s a tough world to live in.”
Tortorella said beat writers have a right to question the power play “because it stinks. But we’ll continue to try to work at it.”
Before signing up for this position before this 2022-23 season, Tortorella made it known this will be probably the last stop on his lengthy, highly accomplished career.
“Worry about people losing faith with this coaching staff?” Tortorella said. “That’s a question for my boss.”
As for the status of the power play going forward, Tortorella and his staff are still searching for answers.
“I think one of the biggest weaknesses we have is someone who can run it from the top,” Tortorella said. “The structure is a one-three-one. I have no problem with the structure.”
The coach said he has had no problem using defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen up top.
“Because he settles things down,” Tortorella said. “Right now he’s the best. Eventually I hope he isn’t. I hope someone else. . .maybe Jamie steps up.”
The coach said the mechanics of a power play are a “skill” dimension of the team.
“There’s a skill part to our team that we struggle with,” he said. “It’s not to criticize what we have here. There just needs to be improvement.”
>Mixed feelings on York
Defenseman Cam York’s play has been somewhat inconsistent to the point where he was benched for Saturday’s game against Seattle.
Tortorella said that York’s skill level should be more evident as the season goes along, although that hasn’t always been the case.
“Even how I feel about him as a player right now, there are good things that happen in a game for him, it’s not like everytime he’s out there he’s awful.I just want to see more consistency, I want to see him use his legs more consistently.”
York is usually placed with Travis Sanheim on the No. 1 pairing that usually draws the toughest defensive assignments.
“He was one of our better players just advancing the puck out of our end zone,” Tortorella said of York. “And whether it’s him just being a bit too slow or the other team just has good sticks, too many pucks are being turned over.”
The coach said York has been one of the Flyers’ better defenders for quite a while at closing people out.
Tortorella said he learned a lot about York’s character after he sent him back to Lehigh Valley prior to the start of the 2022-23 season.
“I was so proud of him for where he brought his game to,” the coach said. “There is no reason why I can’t look for that and I will continue to.”
>Post-trades emotions
In just over a month, the Flyers traded away five established players (Morgan Frost, Joel Farabee, Scott Laughton, Andrei Kuzmenko and Erik Johnson). Tortorella said the team has to push on and do its best to continue the current rebuild.
“The message is the same,” he said. “We’re trying to be as positive as we can and play with as much energy as we can. For the rest of the schedule, we’re going to have to find a way with this lineup because it’s a different lineup.”
