Flyers’ Tortorella Points Finger at Himself After Latest Loss

After Saturday’s 7-0 loss in New Jersey, Philadelphia Flyers coach John Tortorella said he needed to better prepare his team and get his players to develop a defensive-first mentality.

Truth be told, Tortorella took a bullet for a team devastated by injuries, lacking speed and lacking the talent of the Devils.

Tortorella tried to deflect talk of the Flyers’ most recent loss, their seventh loss in their last eight games.

“It’s not effort-based,” he said of the latest skid. “We just have to be smart. We have to have the mindset that we had in the two Edmonton games. We have to think about winning games 2-1 because we’re just not cut out to play a lot of offensive games at the moment.

“The effort is there. I just don’t think we use our heads and understand how we have to play,” he added. “I think it falls to me to make sure they do it Do understand that.”

Tortorella said he was “frustrated for her. … Listen, that’s a good team (in New Jersey); We’re nowhere near that team. So you need to adjust your game to give yourself a chance to win. That frustrates me for her. We made good progress. In the first period we checked well and kept it simple. Second period, not so good. But we just can’t give them the free two to put them 3-0 up.

He discussed Scott Laughton and Morgan Frost turnovers that resulted in two goals for New Jersey.

Weak attack becomes weaker

“We don’t score four goals. We’re not,” Tortorella said bluntly, knowing that a weak offense has become much weaker since Travis Konecny ​​was sidelined. “And we have to understand who we are and play to that.”

Tortorella said Konecny ​​has been a “spark plug” all season, “so losing him is a huge blow. That should let us know, ‘OK, we’ve got to button it up some more.’ I’m not sure we’ll win the game if we button it up because I think they’re that good. But we wouldn’t crawl out of this building like that.”

Tortorella added: “We will keep working on it. I’m not worried about the room. We just have to keep the mental thought about how we want to play. We were so focused on those two games in Edmonton because we knew what was to come with (Connor) McDavid and (Leon) Draisaitl and all these guys.”

Tortorella said the Devils — who have benefited greatly from blossoming high-draft picks — have more offensive weapons than the Oilers. Edmonton leads the NHL in goals per game (3.83 per game) while the Devils (3.51) are fifth, but New Jersey has a more balanced score across its lineup.

“I notice that”

“I don’t know why we can’t think that. That’s on me,” Tortorella said of how he got his players to engage defensively against teams like the Devils. “I need to get them to understand who we are and how we need to play this last quarter of the year.”

He wants his team to play with a more defensive structure and watch the puck better than they did on Saturday.

“We’re not there with this team,” he said, referring to the young, fast and talented Devils. “I don’t know how else to say it. It’s not a criticism of our team. We’re not near her right now.

“That,” he said of his team, “they probably were a few years ago going through their process. I need to understand this further. I just want our guys to have some sense in the final quarter by playing smart when we’re playing those games now because we have a limited lineup.

The challenge doesn’t get any easier when the Philadelphia Flyers get back on the ice and host the scoring New York Rangers on Wednesday.