NHL: Philadelphia Flyers at Calgary Flames - Source: Imagn — HC John Tortorella said after Flyers' 6-4 loss to Red Wings - Source: Imagn

HC John Tortorella doesn't mince his words after Flyers' 6-4 loss to Red Wings

Modified Dec 19, 2024 06:04 GMT

Philadelphia Flyers coach John Tortorella didn't mince words following the 6-4 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday night. The defeat dropped the Flyers' record to 14-14-4 on the season.

Tortorella said that he didn't believe his team played well in the loss.

"I don't think we played well. We crawled back into it, which is good, but we didn't spend enough time in the offensive zone and we didn't defend well enough to get the puck back," Tortorella said.

The Red Wings opened up a 4-2 lead in the second period, thanks to goals from Travis Konecny, Alex DeBrincat, Michael Rasmussen and Joe Veleno.

The Flyers fought back in the third with goals from Ryan Poehling and Owen Tippett to tie the game at 4-4. However, Detroit retook the lead on a Patrick Kane goal before sealing the win with an empty-netter from Lucas Raymond.

"We talked about in between the periods...just need to get that third one to give us some life, I thought we played more in the end zone in the third period. ... We beat ourselves with a bad line change.

"But probably deserved what we got here tonight because I don't think we played well at all," Tortorella added.

J.T. Compher and Noah Cates scored first two goals for the Flyers. Alex Lyon stopped 15 shots, while the Flyers’ Samuel Ersson made 18 saves in the loss.

Flyer captain Sean Couturier on loss to Red Wings

Flyers captain Sean Couturier expressed frustration with the loss but said that the team battled hard.

He felt that the Flyers had good momentum early on but got derailed by penalty troubles late on, which killed their momentum and gave the Red Wings momentum instead.

"I thought it was pretty even game, like I said we got caught, you know, six minutes pretty much in a row on the kill there at the end of the first, so it kind of killed their momentum a little bit and gave them a little momentum,” Sean Couturier said.

Couturier acknowledged some poor changes, losing a key faceoff and other mistakes the Flyers shouldn't have made. Overall, Couturier believed the play five-on-five was good for the Flyers despite the mistakes.

The Flyers next face the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday at home.