Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. The Flyers lost the hockey game. You won’t stop me, because you’ve heard that same sentence twelve times in the last thirteen games. And are surely to hear it some more in the coming games. Everyone with a shred of intelligence understands that this is a full throated tank job.

Everyone, apparently, except members of the media. Certain Flyers reporters and commentators are currently aghast at head coach John Tortorella, because he refused to condemn his players for losing that game. And why should he?

The Flyers were not equipped to do anything except lose that game. Losing was the only option. Even when the Devils played their worst game of the season, and they did, they still had enough talent to score more goals than the Flyers in the established timeframe.

You might be tempted to blame Carter Hart for that loss. And that would be reasonable, especially on the surface. After all, one of the goals came from him mishandling the puck and the third came from a rather odd play where Jack Hughes squeezed it by his post on the rebound.

But blaming Hart would be missing the point.

The Flyers simply not equipped to win games, so why the hell would I lambast Carter Hart because the Flyers lost? They are supposed to lose. It would be silly to do that, and Tortorella knows it. Besides, Hart knows he needs to be better.

He said as much, though it’s a rather moot point since I’ve seen this team blow plenty of games where he was exceptional.

Beyond all that, there is no guarantee that the Devils don’t score that second goal if Hart stays in his crease. There isn’t even a reasonable certainty.

For proof, I take you back to the first goal. Where the Devils forecheck absolutely rammed our defenseman from behind the net, took the puck away and threw the puck out to the inner slot for an unstoppable shot.

That defenseman that the Devils forecheck was ramming was Ivan Provorov, who is the best defenseman on this team. And he was getting destroyed behind the net all night, because he didn’t have the skating speed or the processing speed to evade one of the fastest forechecks in the league.

If that could happen to Provorov, it can sure as hell happen to the rest of those glorified ECHL players.

And, what? Were you expecting John Tortorella to watch Provy getting annihilated behind his net on a regular basis, then start blaming Hart cause they didn’t win the game?

Of course not. That would be ridiculous.

And yet, that’s exactly what so many of the Flyers press wants. They want Torts to lambast his team for being bad, as if being bad is in their control.

That the Flyers won that shot battle in an absolute miracle, and was basically a product of the Devils spending most of the game being way too cute on their passes and freely coughing the puck up on a regular basis.

Then the Flyers would turn those turnovers into a cycle in the OZ.

But they suck at cycles in the OZ, just like they suck at everything else, so all they could get was a bunch of innocent shots from the point.

Hell, Lukas Sedlak scored a goal like THIS:

Enjoy a very competent Konecny goal. He continues to be stellar

He has two goals in two games since his return. And two of the three goals the Flyers have scored in those games.

Also, I would like to submit Exhibit A for why Travis Konecny is my next team Captain,. The guy just gets it.

Eyes on the prize, boys.

ONE STEP CLOSER TO BEDARD

Mandatory Credit: Johnny Ulecka