CHICAGO -- For John Tortorella, the attitude was the same after the Philadelphia Flyers’ 3-1 win against the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on Wednesday as it was when his team lost 6-3 to the New Jersey Devils at MetLife Stadium on Saturday.
Turn the page, move on quickly.
“It’s a game that I was worried about after the game ended in the outdoors,” the Flyers coach said, referring to the 2024 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series in East Rutherford, New Jersey. “So, we got the two points, we’re getting out of here.
“We win and we’re leaving. There’s not too much to discuss about the game. Just good that we got the two points.”
Indeed, the Flyers had one goal upon arriving in Chicago: Get the points that are much needed at this juncture of the season. To do that they’d have hold off the struggling but workmanlike Blackhawks, and quell phenom center Connor Bedard, the No. 1 pick by Chicago in the 2023 NHL Draft.
Done and done. The Flyers (29-20-7) strengthened their hold on third place in the Metropolitan Division; they lead the fourth-place Devils by seven points and are four points behind the second-place Carolina Hurricanes, who were idle Wednesday.
Pretty? No, it definitely wasn’t, especially in the first period when the Blackhawks had several odd-man rushes and were giving the Flyers fits, including one that resulted in a goal by Chicago forward Colin Blackwell.
“They’re a skilled team,” Flyers goalie Samuel Ersson said. “They’ve got a lot of skilled guys that can make plays. But it’s one of the teams that they’re taking chances. They’re taking more risk in their game and trying to go for it, and that’s kind of what we saw in the first period. They kind of burned us a couple of times and got a couple of opportunities off that. We made some good adjustments though.”
Flyers forward Garnet Hathaway said his team was sloppy in its control of odd-man rushes early.
“They’re really good at reading when to jump,” he said. “You can see, especially their top guys. They made a lot of really nice plays that put us on our heels. That’s when we were forcing plays on our heels. You kind of take a step back and you’re in trouble. You’re taking on water.
“But I thought tonight we had big blocks. We definitely had control of the puck more and probably didn’t get as many attempts as the other night, but we played a smart game.”
Speaking of the Blackhawks’ top guys, the Flyers were able to keep Bedard off the score sheet. It hasn’t been an easy thing to do all season, but especially lately. Bedard, who returned in a 4-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday after missing nearly six weeks with a fractured jaw he sustained in early January, was on a three-game point streak (six points; four goals, two assists) since coming back.
He had picked up where he left off prior to his injury and was coming off a three-point game (one goal, two assists) in a 6-3 loss to the Hurricanes on Monday. It was his eight multipoint game, most for an 18-year-old in Blackhawks history.
The Flyers held him to three shots on goal in 24:49 of ice time. Seven other attempts were blocked.
“It’s going to be tough to keep him off (the score sheet) for a long, long time,” Hathaway said. “(Bedard linemate Nick) Foligno, too. Those two are playing well together. Every time the puck squeaks out of your zone, they have speed, they’re coming at you and you can see the high-end skill that creates lanes to the net, creates rebounds.
“You have to know where the guy is behind you because the vision that he has is to make plays, and he was really close tonight. We’re just lucky he didn’t.”
It’s that time of year when teams are doing whatever they can to get points, jockey for position in the standings. The Flyers won’t call this game their most memorable, but they got the desired result. That’s all that matters.
“It’s not pretty but as long as you get the two points and get out and now, I’m already thinking about practice,” Tortorella said. “We have tomorrow off, we’ll get our practice, a big weekend back-to-back (against the New York Rangers on Saturday and at the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday).
“It’s not style points right now. It’s keep your concentration and just grind away to get points.”
