John Tortorella was at the center of a narrative he did not mean to create this week, and before his Philadelphia Flyers take on the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday, he apologized for it.
After the Flyers lost 4-1 to the Florida Panthers, where goaltender Felix Sandstrom allowed three goals on the 14 shots he faced and essentially killed any chance the team had of earning points against one of the best teams in the NHL, the head coach appeared flabbergasted. When asked about Sandstrom and his performance, all Tortorella did was throw his hands up, and emphatically hit the podium he was standing at twice, and then promptly walked out of the room. The entire press conference lasted 39 seconds.
At morning skate on Tuesday morning, the Flyers head coach apologized for his actions and non-answer.
“I made a terrible mistake with you guys the other night,” he said. “You might have asked me about (Sandstrom). My body language was wrong. What I should have said to you was…he tried. Sanny’s tried. Things happened this year that put our goaltending situation into a little bit of a state of flux. Sanny did not deserve that from me. You had the perfect right to ask that question. He did not deserve that from me. It was wrong.”
With Carter Hart being ousted from the Flyers after being charged as part of the 2018 Hockey Canada sexual assault case, Sam Ersson was thrust into the starting position and since then, the Flyers have tried both Sandstrom and Cal Petersen in the backup role to no avail. As Tortorella said, these guys have tried and are in a position they probably were not expecting to be in.
Tortorella continued to explain the outlook of the goaltending for the rest of the season as well. While some might be thinking that starter Ersson gets all remaining games — potentially even pulls double duty on the lone back-to-back remaining — Tortorella and his staff are not thinking that far ahead. He said Ersson will go on Tuesday at Madison Square Garden, but that’s all they have planned.
The Flyers are in the middle of a hotly contested playoff battle. They are clinging on to the third spot of the Metropolitan Division with multiple teams, like the Washington Capitals, New York Islanders, and the Detroit Red Wings, all fighting to kick them out of making the postseason. Those two points against the Panthers would have been nice — although the Flyers might have maybe tried to score more than one goal on their boatload of shots — but it does not spell the end of the season.
We will probably see Sandstrom in between the pipes for the Flyers again this regular season before Ersson is relied upon to take the entire first round, if the team gets there. Tortorella will probably, from now on, give more of a full answer when asked about his goaltending, even during their worst nights.
