Flyers’ lackluster weekend a necessary reminder of where things stand

At the end of last week, NBC Sports Philadelphia released an interview done by Ashlyn Sullivan with Flyers head coach John Tortorella. The focus of the interview at large was on the organization\'s charitable work, but shifted in the end to the state of the franchise and planned handling of the team on the ice. This is when Tortorella dropped a quote that rang pretty loudly: \"There\'s probably going to be some people upset come trading deadline, when we have to make some moves here because of where we\'re at in the process... there\'s gonna have to be some tough decisions coming along here.\"

And the timing for this note, though it could not have been fully predicted, seemed a bit discordant with the larger feeling surrounding the team at the moment. On the very same day of that interview\'s release, with a 5-1 win over the Dallas Stars, the Flyers had extended their winning streak to five games and put together one of their strongest and most convincing performances of the season. First place in the Metro was within striking distance, and the Flyers were being projected across the board to be more likely than not to make the playoffs. Vibes were high, in short, so the talk of selling at the deadline felt a bit jarring.

But also in that same interview, Tortorella was clear that the team \"[has] to be dead-on with our game if we want to continue to survive,\" and even he likely couldn\'t have predicted just how precient that note would be.

Because the Flyers, as we now know, did not continue to ride that wave of momentum into and through the weekend. Despite a pretty good level of overall play in terms of chances generated, a shaky goaltending performance from Carter Hart and too many turnovers ended up sinking them against the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday, putting an end to that winning streak. And then, with a chance to rebound against a struggling Ottawa Senators squad the very next afternoon, the Flyers fell flat. While they managed to put in some good work early and jump out to a 2-0 lead in the first period, and had a chance to really run away with this one, ultimately they let off the gas, let the Senators get back into this one, and both could not stop breaking down to allow grade-A chances for the Senators to work with, while struggling to create enough quality chances of their own.

In short, they let this weekend get away from them. And while they maintained their position at second in the division, the standings are tight and letting too many weekends get away from them like that isn\'t really something they can afford.

While this weekend\'s pair of games were difficult to watch, their results difficult to stomach, they were also perhaps a worthwhile reminder of just what this team is -- much better, certainly, than we would have predicted at the beginning of the season, but still one far from being constructed to sustain a lengthy run into the playoffs.

And that, by extension, reaffirms that Tortorella was right to make the comments about selling when he did. Indeed, he summed up the state of things pretty perfectly: \"we\'re gonna try [to continue to survive, but] we\'re not going to get ahead of ourselves.\"

Now, while that might be a bit of a disappointment in the short term -- everyone loves playoffs and can\'t wait to see the Flyers back to competing in them, after all -- it\'s good news in the longer term. The new Flyers management group came into this season affirming their commitment to rebuilding the right way and setting themselves up for sustained success in the future, and with that in mind, it\'s a comfort to know that they haven\'t been fooled by this bit of success into thinking that they are farther along than they are.

This weekend may have felt like a bit of a step backwards in terms of the on-ice results for this season, but it\'s all part of the process in the bigger scheme of the rebuild. In that respect, nothing has changed. The Flyers are continuing to emphasize getting their on-ice process down and correct, while management keeps their sights set on acquiring young assets (like they did with Jamie Drysdale) and building sustainably for the future. Winning games and maybe, just maybe, still sneaking into the playoffs this season is a nice bit of icing on the cake, but the biggest positive remains that in both success and in failure, no one has lost sight of the process.

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