Fedotov's unlikely heroics not enough to spark Flyers, and John Tortorella is fed up

Turning to goaltender Ivan Fedotov to start the second period of the biggest game of the Philadelphia Flyers’ season was far from an easy decision for head coach John Tortorella.

He had already fought the temptation to start him on Monday night against the New York Islanders, despite Sam Ersson’s back-to-back losses against the Montreal Canadiens and Chicago Blackhawks last week — and for very good reason. Fedotov was only in his fourth day with his new club and as an NHLer. He had yet to participate in a full practice with his new teammates. Even his new equipment still was yet to be fully broken in.

Sure, fans desperately wanted to see the 6’7 goalie whose path to North America was as tumultuous as it gets, complete with a surprise year’s worth of military service and legal battle with the IIHF. But even with Ersson’s game suffering due to almost certain fatigue and the Flyers facing their highest-leverage game of the season yet, Tortorella still kept Fedotov in reserve, likely wanting him to have two days of practice (on Wednesday and Thursday) to acclimate to his new teammates, grow accustomed to his equipment, and mentally prepare himself before getting his NHL debut in one of the two back-to-back games this weekend against less than imposing foes.

So when Tortorella threw that plan out the window after 20 minutes and brought Fedotov in on Monday to start the second period, he did it knowing full well that he was turning to him in an exceptionally difficult set of circumstances — likely at least in part because he expected the Flyers’ skaters to rise to the challenge of protecting their not-likely-to-be-ready netminder.

Which helps to explain why Tortorella was so livid in the wake of the 4-3 overtime loss. Fedotov answered the bell, stopping 19 of 21 shots over the game’s final 40+ minutes. The rest of the team, on the other hand? Not so much.

“I’m totally impressed. I put him in a hell of a spot,” Tortorella said. “And he’s the only goddamn player that played in the second period.”

Hoo boy.

The Flyers did play in the first period, jumping out to an early 1-0 lead courtesy of a Noah Cates snipe just five minutes in. Even the team’s 2-1 first intermission deficit wasn’t the result of awful play on the part of the skaters — New York scored first on a bad bounce deflection, and then on an Ersson softie just 18 seconds later. So when Travis Sanheim delivered a highlight-reel, end-to-end rush to kick off Period No. 2 and Fedotov’s surprise debut, it appeared that Tortorella had pressed the right button — put Fedotov into a game sooner than ideal, bet that the advantage of lack of familiarity on the part of the Isles (and the NHL at large) would outweigh any lack of sharpness on Fedotov’s part, and bank on the skaters stepping up to protect their new teammate, who had gone through so much just to get to North America in the first place.

Instead, the Flyers couldn’t build on their strong first few minutes. And after Fedotov made a miraculous save on Isles star Mat Barzal — Fedotov proved unable to squeeze the puck with his unfamiliar glove but quickly covered it anyway — the floodgates opened up. The Flyers didn’t step up to support Fedotov. They couldn’t even get the puck into the Islanders’ zone.

“I thought we weren’t skating, ended up turning over pucks, flipping pucks out,” Sanheim noted. “They transitioned back on us. It’s hard to get any momentum when you’re constantly going back for regroups and playing in the D zone.”

“We definitely should have recognized the situation, (Fedotov) coming in, a bunch of different things,” Cates added. “Gotten pucks deep and played to our game, instead of turning it into a track meet and letting them hem us in.”

Those were a lot of words to explain what happened in the second period. Tortorella had just one that he used to describe his team’s work in the middle stanza.

“Soft,” he said. “One guy played — the goalie.”

And Fedotov certainly did play. He ultimately made 16 saves in the period, using his immense size combined with more than adequate mobility to keep the game tied for nearly 17 minutes.

It was his teammates who didn’t do their fair share, in Tortorella’s estimation.

“That was embarrassing (in) the second period for the Philadelphia Flyer uniform, the way we played. Embarrassing,” he fumed.

It wasn’t just the fact that Fedotov didn’t receive any extra support in the wake of the goalie switch, however. There were also the high stakes of the game itself. The Flyers entered Monday night five points ahead of the Islanders and having played two more games than their opponent. A regulation win would have buried the Isles, and essentially made it a three-team race (Flyers, Detroit and Washington) for two final playoff spots. But in a tie game, with a goalie making his NHL debut and delivering an unexpectedly adept performance, the Flyers still faltered.

“We kind of left him to dry,” Cates acknowledged.

Well, most of the Flyers did.

Tortorella criticized the entire team — sans Fedotov — for their work in the second period. But he did note that there was a pushback in the third, one that ultimately led to Morgan Frost’s game-tying goal with 9.6 seconds remaining.

But not from everyone.

“High marks, the way we came back in the third,” he began, before quickly tacked on a qualifier. “Some guys.”

Fedotov certainly endeared himself to the coach, jumping into the middle of a game with serious playoff implications without any NHL experience and still holding his own.

“You know, I’m not a young guy. I have some experience,” Fedotov said. “I don’t care (if I’m) playing from the first minute or during the game. (If) I need to play, it doesn’t matter. I just want to help the team.”

Travis Sanheim is exhausted and banged up, yet found a way to score a Bobby Orr-style goal and take on 25+ minutes. Owen Tippett prevented a late empty-net goal by Kyle Palmieri with sheer hustle, putting the Flyers in position to nab their loser point at least. Both Tyson Foerster and Scott Laughton were entrusted with 10+ minutes of ice time in the third period alone. Tortorella wasn’t mad at everyone.

But he was clearly, severely disappointed in at least some of his players.

“There are certain people that they don’t have a clue how to play, or just don’t have it in them, to play in these types of situations,” he said. “And this is why I’m glad we’re playing them. Because we have to figure things out, as far as what we’re going to become as a team here.”

Tortorella didn’t name names. But he did sit Travis Konecny for the first 7:43 of the third period (removing him from the power play in the process), which certainly felt like punishment for his weak clear up the boards in the lead-up to Anders Lee’s late second period goal, and surely there were others who didn’t live up to Tortorella’s standards as well.

The Flyers aren’t out of the playoff race despite their current five-game losing streak — in fact, they still sit in the East’s final wild card spot. But their hold on it is getting extremely dicey. Yes, they’re ahead of both the Capitals and Red Wings, but it’s merely a one-point edge over both, and each team has games in hand over the Flyers (Washington has played in three fewer games than the Flyers, while Detroit has one fewer).

Even the Islanders are now breathing down Philadelphia’s neck, only four points back with two games in hand — and those two games are against Chicago and Columbus. By the time the Flyers next hit the ice for a game (Friday vs. Buffalo), the Islanders could well be tied with them in the standings, and Washington (if they defeat Pittsburgh on Thursday) ahead of them.

They have six games left, and the looming three-day break this week before Friday’s matchup with the Sabres will give them a chance to replenish some energy for the homestretch. The worn-down Flyers should benefit from that.

But after watching his team squander an improbably heroic showing by their “rookie” netminder and still lose, Tortorella is no longer confident that more rest will solve all of his team’s problems.

“If you don’t have enough balls to play in these type of games, rest doesn’t do us any good,” he said.

And at least on this night, Tortorella felt the testicular fortitude was painfully lacking.