Oct 22, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Flyers head coach John Tortorella leaves the bench after loss to Washington Capitals at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images
Prior to the Flyers 4-1 loss to the Washington Capitals on Tuesday, John Tortorella had a Flyers spokesperson share lineup changes with the media via text message.
Quite simply, the text came through as follows:
Per Torts, lineup changes:
- Ersson starts
-Cates & Deslauriers in up front
- Seeler in on defense
Sam Ersson starting was not a surprise. Nor really was Nick Seeler, who had been working his way back from a preseason leg injury and was close the last couple of games.
The forwards, though, were interesting.
Based on his usage in the loss on Saturday and then how the lines ran in practice on Monday, there was a real belief that Jett Luchanko could be a scratch Tuesday.
Torts had all but said that coming into the season that Luchanko was unlikely to play in both games of a back-to-back, so it was assumed Noah Cates was going to sub in for him.
But who would Nick Deslauriers be replacing? Many thought it was Scott Laughton, whose wife Chloe had just given birth to a baby boy named Reed Leo.
So, the media started texting back trying to see if that was the case.
Nope. Laughton was in.
Then who was coming out?
Foerster
Immediately three texts fired off. Can we confirm all of these are healthy scratches? Is Foerster hurt? Just need to make sure these aren't injury-related changes.
Yes, all are healthy
That would be all the information anyone got on the scratching of Foerster, who scored the first Flyers goal of the season and hasn't done much since.
Tortorella wouldn't add much about the decision after the game, saying only "Tyson just wasn't playing well."
And the coach wasn't wrong. Foerster hadn't been playing well. But really, he could have said that about half the team.
The changes didn't matter on Tuesday.
Ersson was fine in goal, but he needs to be perfect because the offense can't score. Seeler was also OK, but he was shaking off some rust.
Laughton was on the ice for all four Washington goals, although it's hard to point a finger at him as to why they happened.
And Deslauriers had a heck of a scrap with Washington tough guy Dylan McIlrath in what was easily the highlight of the game.
WHAT A TILT! Nic Deslauriers doesn't take long to drop the gloves with Dylan McIlrath 👊👊#Flyers pic.twitter.com/yF96GPndfw
But otherwise, there was no difference. The Flyers don't look like any semblance of the team they were for 70 games last season before their season-ending collapse.
What made the Flyers equal parts fun, dangerous and a pain in the butt cheeks to play against for much of the 2023-24 season was their ability to grind other teams, and to stay within their structure and be aggressively opportunistic.
That is practically missing so far this season - and Torts knows it.
Flyers Head Coach John Tortorella meets with the media following a 4-1 loss to the Caps on Tuesday night. #WSHvsPHI pic.twitter.com/Cw07HBnrR5
"What happens is, when you're not scoring goals that's what the focus is on and you forget about the other stuff," Tortorella said. "If we just stay and play our game - it's not a safe game, it's a very aggressive game - we'll get our goals.
"But there's a fine line of playing aggressive, on your toes and checking forward versus cheating and hoping, in behind a play. That's when things go the wrong way back the other way. That's what we have to watch for."
In other words, Torts is saying the team is getting outside of themselves by trying to do too much because they are too worried about not scoring. Through six games at even strength, the Flyers have been outscored 19-7. The Flyers haven't scored a goal at 5-on-5 in nearly 130 minutes of game action. They have just one 5-on-5 goal in the last eight periods of hockey.
It's weighing on them.
"We have a group of men here that are going to figure this out and we just have to do it together and not lose ourselves through panic or frustration and forget about how we play."
One has to wonder though if the players view the constant line juggling and lineup changes as a version of that same panic or frustration that Torts is talking about not letting permeate the room.
After all, the lines have been all over the place in games and practices. For the home opener, Sean Couturier was relegated to a fourth line winger for half the game before returning to his center role late in the third period as the offense was nonexistent.
Then he was back on the top line Tuesday.
And what will the lineup look like Wednesday when the Flyers play the same Caps team again, only this time in Washington?
It's a good bet that Foerster will be back in, but who will he replace?
It's not automatically going to be Deslauries. The Capitals are a heavy team so having the Flyers heavyweight in the lineup is a good thing.
After a fast start to the season, the last several games, Bobby Brink has fallen off the table with his play. Tortorella had little patience for him at times last season. There's a good chance he could see the bench again.
A tougher decision might be to see who to pull out of the lineup if Luchanko goes back in. Not sure Cates is the guy that comes out automatically either. If Torts is trying to send a message that guys aren't playing well, he's favorite whipping boy from the last two seasons, Morgan Frost, could come out for a game as well, as he hasn't looked great either.
Couple that with the fact that Torts is going to hand this game to Ivan Fedotov in goal, despite seeming like he really doesn't want to when he's been asked about his backup goalie situation, and the Flyers are in real danger of having this losing streak reach six games if they don't snap out of their malaise quickly.
Honestly, there's not much else Torts can do as a coach with the players he has. It's easy to point fingers at the coaches when things go to hell quickly, but there's not much a coach can do when there is a complete lack of offense and the guys on the team can't seem to play within themselves.
Torts is going to keep trying. He's going to keep pushing. He's going to keep juggling. It wouldn't surprise if at some point he makes a lineup decision that gets everyone talking - again.
But at some point he - and the Flyers organization - have to wonder if all the circuits have disconnected from the buttons of his control panel.
If so, a season already focused on rebuilding, may grow infinitely longer than even the harshest of critics may have expected.
