“Some players have no idea how to play”: John Tortorella blasts his team

As you may know, the playoff race is tighter in the East. Tighter than in the West, anyway.

The Bruins, Panthers, Rangers and Hurricanes are all guaranteed playoff berths. It’s only a matter of time before the Maple Leafs do the same, and I’d be surprised if the Lightning didn’t.

But the Flyers, Capitals, Red Wings and Islanders are still fighting for two of the spots.

Right now, the Flyers have the advantage of being in third place in the Metropolitan, but that may not last. They’ve played 76 games, more than any other team in the East.

Every win is important, and yesterday they lost in overtime to the Islanders. Not ideal, you say?

But in addition to the loss, the Flyers didn’t play great. John Tortorella didn’t like his players’ effort (they were soft in his eyes) and he wasn’t exactly shy about telling the media.

No surprise there, you might say.

Basically, he said that only his goalie(giant Ivan Fedotov, who didn’t start the game) played well. He was impressed with his play in his NHL debut and that he was the only damn player who played in the second period.

But the skaters went through the wringer.

The coach says that “some players who have no idea how to play” at this time of the season (hockey is more intense with the playoffs approaching) or just don’t have what it takes to play such big games.

In his eyes, it’s all wrong. How bad?

I’m ashamed of the way we played in the second period, and it’s a disgrace for the Flyers’ uniform. – John Tortorella

It’s ironic that the guy who thinks the players aren’t playing up to the uniform wasn’t wearing a jacket and tie behind his team’s bench, but hey.

The real question is how the players will react to the 4-3 defeat.

Overtime

– Great…

– Training at 10:30 this morning.

– To be continued this morning.

– Josh Anderson: His speed isn’t the problem. [TSN 690]

– Interesting.