"You can do two things at once" -- John Tortorella and Flyers prepare for Stadium Series game with serious playoff implications

EAST RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY — On Saturday night, the Philadelphia Flyers play perhaps their biggest game of the 2023-24 season.

Yes, it’s their long-awaited outdoor game, the first for the Flyers organization in front of fans since 2019. But more importantly, Saturday night’s Stadium Series contest at MetLife Stadium in North Jersey is a key moment in their unlikely playoff push.

“It’s such an important game,” head coach John Tortorella said after Friday’s practice. “I haven’t followed where the guys were in the standings in the other games, but this one is right in front of us here. 20 plus games left for each team, you can see where the East is.”

Few expected the Flyers to be where they are now in the NHL standings with just 27 games remaining. Nevertheless, they currently sit tied for second in the Metropolitan Division, seven points clear of fourth place.

That team in fourth? These New Jersey Devils, who do have two games in hand on the Flyers, making the deficit far less daunting than it may originally appear.

The Devils, of course, entered this season with far more hype than did the Flyers. Led by impact players like Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, Dougie Hamilton, Jesper Bratt and Timo Meier, the Devils hit the 2023-24 season as a young team on the rise, a club that had won a playoff round the previous year and appeared poised to take a further step.

The Flyers? Most believed they were destined for a top-10 pick, maybe even a top-five selection. They’ve instead been one of the league’s biggest surprises.

“The word “belief” is huge for us. We’re not a team full with stars,” Tortorella admitted. “And we certainly don’t have things figured out here (in) the beginning of our process of rebuilding this. But belief brings in a lot of good things. If you have the effort and you have the mindset that we’re going to do this together, you can stay competitive in this league.”

Philadelphia hasn’t merely “stayed competitive.” If the season ended today, it would be them and not New Jersey in the playoffs. In fact, HockeyViz.com gives the Flyers a 71 percent chance of making the postseason at this moment; the Devils check in under a coin-flip at 45 percent.

Saturday may be an outdoor game, complete with all the pageantry and national hype that comes along with it. But it’s also a way for the Flyers to put serious distance between them and the Devils, the team most obviously chasing them for a playoff spot. If the Flyers win in regulation, that 26 percentage point gap in playoff likelihood between the two teams balloons to 44 points. If the Devils win, however? It shrinks to a mere 13.

We’re talking about a massive swing here, due to the outcome of just one game.

But it isn’t just a game. It’s a spectacle. MetLife Stadium can seat up to 82,500 people, and while it doesn’t appear the game will draw quite that many people — based on the tree-centric backdrop covering more than a few rows of seats in the lower levels — it likely won’t be far off. It promises to include two concerts: pop stars The Jonas Brothers and rock heroes The Gaslight Anthem. And, of course, there’s the elements — it’s expected to drop below freezing by puck drop, and the quality of the ice could fluctuate throughout the contest due to wind and potential snowfall.

It’s very easy to forget that Saturday night’s contest is, at its core, simply one regular season game out of 82, with two big points (potentially three, if extra time is required) on the line.

The Flyers’ goal: find the balance between enjoying the event and treating it like the pivotal contest that it is.

Take Sam Ersson, the Flyers’ starting netminder. Throughout most of the season, Ersson probably thought that, at best, he would get to watch it mostly from the bench. But due to Carter Hart’s indefinite leave of absence as a result of sexual assault charges in London, Ontario, Ersson is now Philadelphia’s clear-cut No. 1 goalie. He was a no-brainer for the starter’s nod.

And now, for the first time since he was 15 years old, he’ll be playing a game outdoors, and with his parents — who are flying in from Sweden — in the stands watching.

“It’s surreal. It’ll be a very fun experience,” Ersson acknowledged after taking the ice on Friday afternoon.

But Ersson also will be the Flyers player — by virtue of his position — most capable of impacting the game’s outcome. He needs to be ready.

And he knows that.

“We want to enjoy the experience, soak in the moment, but at the same time, we know we have a job to do,” he said. “Same game, same puck, same size rink. Just go out there and do your job.”

Tortorella admitted on Friday that he’s wrestling with the knowledge of the game’s inherent importance and his desire to have his players fully enjoy the unique nature of the event.

“Yeah, it screws me up,” he said. “You know me – I want to play the game. I want to get to it, I want to see where we’re at. I want to do the best we can and try to get these points. But I also understand this here, I think it’s important for the league, I think it’s important for guys to experience it.”

Tortorella’s solution? Trust that his players will handle it properly, without his direct guidance.

It’s what he did last week after the team’s 4-1 victory over Winnipeg, believing his club didn’t need the coaching staff to harp on just how underwhelming they were over the game’s final 40 minutes despite the deceptively impressive final score. Rewarded by his club in the form of a far more complete 3-2 victory over the Kraken two days later, he plans to deploy the same tactic this time too.

“I’m leaving them alone,” Tortorella confirmed. “We had our practice. We probably won’t meet tomorrow. I wanted – and this is where I’m thankful – (to be able) to get them out there for a half hour with their families to let them enjoy it. But as I’ve said all year long, I trust our team. I want them to enjoy the experience.”

His players appreciate their coach’s faith.

“Every situation and challenge that he’s sent our way that we’ve come across this year, I think we’ve handled it well,” Ryan Poehling said. “I think it’s nice to have that trust from a coach/player aspect.”

New captain Sean Couturier also has complete confidence in his teammates that they won’t allow the moment to overwhelm them given the stakes.

“I trust every single guy in the room,” Couturier said. “I think we’ve done a great job all year of handling ourselves and growing as a team. I haven’t really had much to say all year to be honest, because guys are on the task and ready to go. I expect the same thing going into (tomorrow’s) game.”

The Devils certainly aren’t a team that the Devils want to give any life. Jack Hughes is now back from injury. New Jersey GM Tom Fitzgerald could easily be emboldened by a late February surge to be especially aggressive at the trade deadline — particularly in goal — and make adds that the Flyers by their own admission are unlikely to match. The Devils, in a way, feel a bit like a sleeping giant, and the Flyers certainly don’t want to wake them up as a result of getting caught up in the spectacle of an outdoor game.

Tortorella isn’t worried, though.

“They’ll be ready to play,” he promised. “I don’t have to worry about that, because I know they’ll be ready to play.”

And as Poehling put it, Saturday doesn’t have to be an either/or situation. The Flyers can enjoy the unique nature of the game with their families, a game that they’ll remember long after their careers are over — and treat the game with the focus that it demands.

“You can do two things at once,” Poehling confidently assured.