Oct 12, 2024; Calgary, Alberta, CAN; Philadelphia Flyers head coach John Tortorella on his bench against the Calgary Flames during the first period at Scotiabank Saddledome. Mandatory Credit: Sergei Belski-Imagn Images
The Flyers have stumbled out of the gate. They are 1-3-1. They have the worst goal differential (-8) in the Eastern Conference and fourth worst in the league.
They have been outscored 17-6 at even strength and were shut out in their home opener on Saturday.
And yet, John Tortorella has been mostly understanding of his team's struggles.
They have been playing with two teenagers in the lineup, have a backup goalie with basically no previous NHL experience and were also playing without one of their glue guys on defense for the first five games.
As such, inconsistency can certainly abound.
But to be fair to the Flyers, they also were done zero favors by the schedule-makers.
A four-game road trip to start the season with cross-country flights in both directions and limited time off to get their feet under them is not conducive to a fast start.
How fair was it to fly all the way to Vancouver for the season opener, to turn around and have to play the next night in Calgary?
How fair was it to back track, albeit a shorter distance, but still a different time zone, from Alberta back to Seattle?
How fair was it to fly all the way back to Philadelphia and have to play the very next day against a team waiting for you at your home area, who has been on the East Coast all week - oh, and by the way, this was against a team familiar with you from a game a week earlier?
They're all valid questions, and Tortorella doesn't want them to be used as a reason for losing, but he wasn't shy about pointing out that this is what the NHL does to teams it doesn't necessarily view as marquee.
"It's no excuse, but the National Hockey League works this way," Tortorella said. "When you have no respect in the league - and we do not - you get the schedule that you get.
"I don't want to put all the blame of our home opener on that, but that's a tough game for us. Having said that I don't think we're dead-on even in the games we played prior. We've had some good minutes, but we've been very inconsistent just as far as the checking forward and just the hardness of our game. Again, five games in, I'm sure a lot of coaches and teams are struggling to find their identity too, we don't have a lot of time. We need to get at it right away and get back to what our standard is."
If you look around the league, there are other quirks in the schedule as well - most of this created by the league planning on pausing for two weeks in February for their "Four Nations Tournament" - but most of those scheduling oddities aren't as tough as the Flyers.
They were able to get a full day off on Sunday, were back at practice Monday, but then have another back-to-back set against Washington on Tuesday and Wednesday. That means four of their first seven games will be played as part of a back-to-back.
Only Toronto also had to do that, but all seven of the Maple Leafs games were in the Eastern time zone.
(Note: Carolina and Tampa Bay were both originally scheduled to do the same but had one of the games postponed and rescheduled for later this season because of Hurricane Milton).
Most teams didn't even have one set of back-to-backs, though.
The only other team who had a head-scratching schedule to open the season, is the L.A. Kings, who won't play their home opener until Thursday after starting the season with a seven-game road trip.
As all schedules do, they have their positives at some point as well. After back-to-backs next weekend, the Flyers won't have to play another back-to-back set until Thanksgiving weekend. And they don't have to leave the Eastern time zone again until a game in Nashville on Thanksgiving eve.
But there is a gap between Dec. 21 and January 7 where the Flyers don't play at home and March is incredibly wonky, where they play seven straight games at home in a 12-day span before embarking on a five-game road trip in eight days that zig-zags all over the map.
Will games matter by then? Who knows. And will Tortorella's patience be tested before then? Probably. But for now, he's being tempered... and he's probably right to do so.
