Might be time for Flyers coach to put his foot down

      The game had been over for a good 15 minutes and that should have been enough time for emotions to settle.

      In a case of forgetting or dismissing a key part of defensive strategy, the Flyers had just gone from a potential inspiring victory to a rather depressing regulation-time loss.

      Giving up two goals to the New York Rangers in the closing minutes of Thursday night’s 3-2 loss at Madison Square Garden was bad enough.

      But the way they did it was what got Flyers coach Rick Tocchet hot under the collar.

      Speaking in the corridor outside the team’s locker room, he explained how his players had gotten away from the game plan.

      As for the why of it, he had no answers.

      Giving up the middle of the ice, he said, was a recipe for defeat.

      “That’s Hockey 101,” he told assembled reporters.

      The troubling thing is this: It’s not the first time Tocchet has had to come out after a loss and explain why things didn’t go Philadelphia’s way. Particularly, when the defeat is caused by avoidable mistakes.

      What we do know is the Flyers enter Sunday’s game at the Calgary Flames in last place in the Metropolitan Division, a location few expected them to be in entering the second week of November.

      Ten regulation-time losses and there’s still some Halloween candy left to be opened.

      In his year-plus tenure here in Philly, Tocchet has only lost his composure a couple times when making his displeasure known in a public forum.

      It’s not his style. As a former NHL player, and a star one at that, Tocchet knows raising one’s voice  doesn’t always achieve much.

      Likewise, disciplining players by benching them usually doesn’t gain much either. Unless they keep making the same mistakes over and over again after they were told how to play the right way.

      It definitely didn’t work when John Tortorella was running the show here.

      He once benched ex-Flyer Morgan Frost six games for something the player said he really wasn’t sure what he did wrong.

      If the intention was to make an example out of Frost for some wrongdoing, it didn’t work.

      Part of the reason Tocchet was brought in here was to change the culture.

      No doubt, general manager Daniel Briere wanted to take this team in a different direction. Call it a reversal of the old “good cop, bad cop” approach.

      And last season it worked. The Flyers surprised a lot of people by ending a team record-tying five-year playoff drought and then knocked off Pittsburgh in the first round of the Stanley Cup competition.

      The players responded to Tocchet’s approach. A trust was built. Things were looking up. Many prognosticators picked the orange, black and white to return to the postseason again this season.

      Perhaps a bit satisfied with last year’s accomplishments, the team stepped onto Xfinity Mobile Arena ice at the end of September and promptly laid a 7-0 egg vs. the Penguins.

      It’s been downhill ever since.

      Tocchet watched the team go through a brutal nine-game winless streak (0-6-3) and just about every facet of play has broken down.

      No one is suggesting Tocchet revert to the Tortorella approach. It’s just not his style.

      Yet at some point, doesn’t he have to put his foot down and start making individual players accountable for their mistakes?

      He’s shown remarkable restraint after some of these setbacks. After every game, he fields a dozen questions and tries to explain why a team as successful as last year’s – with only a few personnel moves (Alex Bump back to the minors briefly, for instance) – has struggled so badly.

      Once in a while, the exasperation seeps through in the coach’s comments after tough defeats. For the most part, he hasn’t flown off the handle. . .yet.

      However, maybe he should. Maybe he should bench a star player or two if it’s warranted. Or have Briere ship a young player back to Allentown for a couple games. Maybe Toochet should call out an individual’s mistake in the media if for no other reason than letting the other players know that carelessness is not acceptable.

      The players say they respect Tocchet and indicate they will play their hearts out for him.

      Now might be a good time to start showing it.