What the fallout ends up being for the Philadelphia Flyers following a wild series of events last week remains to be seen, but on the ice, now is the time for a last stretch of evaluation for coach John Tortorella, as certain players try to claim their stake to be part of what the coach hopes will be a fruitful future for his team.

There’s no doubt there are tiers in which these players fall at this juncture. For example, Torts cannot heap any more effusive praise on players like Noah Cates and Scott Laughton without it sounding like he’s truly playing favorites.

Nor can it become more evident that the coach and Kevin Hayes don’t see eye-to-eye. They may not hate each other (each has said as much publicly), but when the coach strips you of your leadership letter, demotes you to the fourth line, benches you for a full period, scratches you for a game when you are about to be named the team’s All-Star Game representative, and changes your position from center to wing even though you still believe you should be a center, it’s easy to see that he doesn’t think that Hayes is a good fit for the organization moving forward.

And then there are those players who Torts is still trying to figure out. He wants to give them every opportunity to make a statement they belong. These guys were all first round picks after all and are still young in the sport. They can either recognize their potential and thrive or they can flame out and lose their coach’s confidence.

All four were a bit of a story line Tuesday, as the Flyers fell 5-2 to the Tampa Bay Lightning, starting off their week-long road trip with a frustrating thud.

Frustrating because the Lightning, as good a team as they are, had really been struggling of late. And frustrating because when the game was at 5 vs. 5, the Flyers were playing with the Lightning, and even taking it to them a little bit, establishing a good forecheck, winning some 50/50 pucks and even outmuscling a team with superior talent.

Where things went completely awry for the Flyers was when it came to discipline – or lack thereof. They gave Tampa six power play chances. The Lightning have the second-most efficient power play in hockey and scored on three of them – or the equivalent of the difference on the scoreboard.

“You can’t take six penalties,” Tortorella said. “You can’t take three in the first period. Most of them were in the offensive zone.”

One of them came very late in the game, and could lead to a suspension for Tony DeAngelo, who, after video review by the officials was assessed a major penalty for spearing veteran Tampa forward Corey Perry in the berries, and was ejected from the game as well (game misconduct) –

The Flyers were still within striking distance when this happened. It led to the fifth and final Tampa goal, which put a nail in the coffin. We’ll get to this incident later, including DeAngelo having some choice words for Perry postgame and Tortorella’s assessment of it, but it was those first period penalties that really ruffled the coach’s feathers. Joel Farabee committed two of them, Travis Sanheim the other.

After the game players said that in preparation for the Lightning, it was stressed upon them not to give Tampa power play chances, and then they gave them three in the first 20 minutes.

As such, Farabee and Sanheim found themselves in a familiar spot – not on the ice.

Both were benched for the entire second period. Just two weeks ago, Sanheim was a healthy scratch for a game in Calgary in which he had many family and friends attending and in the same game, Farabee was benched early in the first period and never saw the ice again, even after Travis Konecny left the game with an injury. There was a real chance Farabee would have been a healthy scratch the next night in Edmonton had Konecny not been hurt.

Now, two weeks later, Tortorella was forced to bench them again.

I asked him if there’s a concern about having to do it a second time so soon after doing it the last time.

“Yeah,” he said, almost despondently. “I don’t know where I go there.”

He did put them back on the ice in the third period, saying he wanted to “see if they (would) answer the proper way,” before again reiterating “I don’t now where I go there.”

And one more follow up came, asking if he felt they responded.

“I got to watch the tape,” he said.

Not really a ringing endorsement for either.

Both players have struggled considerably this season. Farabee’s situation has been well-documented, as he came back, likely too quickly, from off-season disc-replacement surgery in his neck, and having the grind of a long NHL season take a toll on him physically since he didn’t have a full and proper off-season training regimen to get his body prepared for it.

Sanheim has been more curious. It was certainly a terrible error in judgment by GM Chuck Fletcher to sign Sanheim to an 8-year, $50 million extension before Tortorella even had a chance to coach him, but Sanheim’s game this season has fallen off a cliff.

I’m told that despite his struggles, the Flyers are still confident they can get him right, but maybe that confidence has waned lately, if the coach’s discipline isn’t getting through.

One thing that is concerning for both Farabee and Sanheim is a lack of public accountability. Both players declined to be interviewed following the game against the Lightning.

That’s not good. Face the music. Take some responsibility – even if you feel it’s unwarranted. Optics are important. Look at DeAngelo, for example. He knew we were going to want to talk to him after the game, and he knew exactly why. He admitted to the spear, although he said where he got Perry wasn’t his intended target area (watch the video above and decide for yourself). Nevertheless he stood there and spoke.

It’s the fierce competitor in him that fuels that pride and willingness to explain himself.

That doesn’t make what he did right. It was pretty egregious and if/when he is fined/suspended, it will be deserved. It also cost the team any chance at coming back to win the game, so he let his emotions get the better of him and it impacted his team negatively. That’s not what you want from your players.

But you can understand why Torts likes his passion and wishes guys like Farabee and Sanheim had a similar fire.

In fact…

For context, if you watch the whole interview, I’m standing just off screen to the left, and asked the initial question about Farabee and Sanheim. So, when Torts is answering the DeAngelo question, and turns back to look at me when he says, “A couple of guys I did sit, I wish that would rub off on them,” that’s his way of signaling to us that he doesn’t think they have the “personality” and “competitiveness” that they need to play the right way.

It’s a damning situation for both Farabee and Sanheim – high draft picks, making bigger money on lengthier deals, not playing up to the standard the coach is setting.

As for DeAngelo, well, he didn’t mince words about the incident with Perry.

Well, OK!

I did mention four players Torts is still evaluating at the beginning of this post. We talked about Farabee and Sanheim. DeAngelo usurped some time here because of his nut-jabbing, but he isn’t one of them. The other two? Cam York and Morgan Frost.

Let’s start with York, who was originally credited with the second goal, but it was changed to Brendan Lemieux’s first goal as a Flyer after replays show it glanced off Lemieux’s stick blade on the way in:

(Nice shift by Lemeiux there, if we’re being honest.)

Anyway, it was York’s lone shining moment in an otherwise tough night for him. The lowlight being Ross Colton’s goal that turned out to be the game-winner for Tampa:

York gets caught flat-footed and out of position for just a second here, but it’s enough time to let Colton beat him to the front of the net. He lunges futilely to get a stick in the passing lane, but missed it and it was too late to physically recover in time to thwart Colton’s chance.

York has had an up and down season. He didn’t earn a job with the team out of training camp, needing a little more seasoning in the AHL. When he finally was called up, he got off to a solid start and really played well for a stretch of games. but it has fallen off since. Torts said it recently:

His game has dipped…. It’s an ever-flowing process with him…. He’s an important guy that we are trying to develop the proper way. He wasn’t taken out (of the lineup in a recent game against New Jersey) to be given a rest. He has struggled a little bit, so a night off sometimes helps…. I don’t think he’s been consistent in (having the right mindset). I want him to take a chance. I want him to always take a chance and do things with the puck, with his legs. Not just bang it off the wall and ice it. I think that’s what’s been missing in his game. The skills aren’t what’s bothered me in the dip in his game. I think his mindset, that’s what’s dipped.”

Mindset. Hockey sense. Same thing. It needs to improve.

The other guy is Morgan Frost. Here’s the positive – he played a really good game against the Lightning.

Frost scored the first goal and finished with five shots on goal. But he did little things well too. Here’s one Bill Meltzer pointed out just before the DeAngelo fiasco:

That was one of several good shifts by Frost against Tampa. Frost has improved this season, but has he improved enough? Torts asked this question prior to the Rangers game last week.

(The final month is) very important for him and a number of guys that I think have improved…. But we have to make some calls on… are we headed in the right direction with this guy? Even though they’ve improved, is it still the right guy as we move forward? Or do we need to look elsewhere in certain situations, so try to keep on climbing and improve?

Frost is going to have to continue to have games like Tuesday in the final 19 games of the season if he wants to be the right guy in Philadelphia.

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