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“Losing Tyson Hurt,” Says Torts After Flyers Log 27 Penalty Minutes in Calgary Loss
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The Nick Sirianni stuff is so exhausting. Pagan can handle that today. Let’s talk about the Flyers, who are back in action Tuesday night in Edmonton after a 6-3 loss in Calgary on Saturday night. Or Cal-GARY as Barry Melrose likes to say. They committed eight penalties totaling 27 minutes, a large chunk of that due to Tyson Foerster’s first career fight coming in defense of Jamie Drysdale:
You probably didn’t expect much on the second night of a road/road Western Canada back-to-back, with the backup goaltender in net. Getting anything out of that game would have been great, considering the non-gift the schedule makers provided to the Flyers to start the season. If anything, at least you get it out of the way sooner, rather than later.
They went down 1-0 on a fluky goal that came off a shoulder from behind the net and Ivan Fedotov just didn’t see it. Goal number two came from a 4v3 and goal number three a two-man advantage for the Flames. It felt like the Flyers were constantly on the penalty kill despite out-shooting Calgary in the first two periods and putting together some decent looks. And while they did nick a shortie, they were playing from behind throughout.
“Losing Tyson hurt,” said Torts after the game. “He does it (fights) for the right reason, but losing him for that amount of minutes kind of screwed things up… That (defending teammates) doesn’t have to be spoken about in our locker room. With Tyson, it’s the right thing to do, but it takes a really good player off for 17 minutes. Those are fine lines, but, it’s their call. They know how to protect one another.”
Torts also talked about “misfires” and “almost goals,” and didn’t blame the back-to-back on the performance. For what it’s worth, Foerster only logged 32 penalty minutes in 77 games last year, so in one game this year he’s more than halfway to his career high. The Flyers were bottom-10 in the NHL last season in both penalties committed and PIM, and while they did lead the league with 16 shorthanded goals while boasting a top-five penalty kill percentage, you don’t want to be living on the PK in perpetuity, especially as you add offensive talent throughout the rebuild.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com