Flyers, battling ‘distractions,' head into trade deadline with another lopsided loss

After the Flyers surrendered their fourth goal not even halfway through Thursday night's game, Travis Konecny snapped his stick in frustration.

He skated to the bench and tossed the two pieces aside. The scene summed up the night for the Flyers.

In their final game before Friday's 3 p.m. ET trade deadline, the Flyers were dismantled by the Jets, 4-1, at the Wells Fargo Center. The NHL's top team absolutely took it to John Tortorella's club.

"Obviously I think there are maybe a lot of distractions off the ice," Sean Couturier said, referring to the deadline. "But it's on us to do a better job coming to the rink and being focused, showing up."

The Flyers (27-28-8) have lost three of their last four games (1-2-1) and are off to an 0-2-0 start to their season-long seven-game homestand. They failed to rebound from a flat and uninspiring 6-3 loss Tuesday night to the Flames. Tortorella wanted to flush that one down the toilet. He stuck to his word; there was no film study for the head coach.

"I didn't watch one second of that game," Tortorella said Thursday at morning skate. "It's the first time this year that I did not watch a game and that was it. ... I just want a fresh look."

The Flyers didn't give him a new look.

"My thoughts about the game tonight are going to stay in the locker room," Tortorella said. "What I say up here with you guys will do the team no good. We didn't play well."

Matvei Michkov and Tyson Foerster committed first-period penalties that led to goals. In the second period, Winnipeg added two more by beating the Flyers up ice and scoring in transition.

"It wasn't good enough, especially for this time of year," Couturier said. "I thought we were flat for most of the game, they seemed to want it more. They're a good team, they made us pay."

With 2:42 minutes left in the game, Michkov scored his 20th goal of the season.

The Flyers ended up splitting their two-game regular-season series with the Jets (43-16-4). They edged Winnipeg, 2-1, in a shootout five days ago at Canada Life Centre. Prior to this loss, they had won the previous four meetings with the Jets by a combined score of 11-2.

• Samuel Ersson made 23 saves on 27 shots.

The Flyers didn't play well in front of him. Winnipeg took advantage of the Flyers' penalties and poor backtracking.

"That's what happens when you take penalties against good power plays," Travis Sanheim said. "It puts us on our heels and we couldn't recover and turn the tide."

At morning skate, Tortorella called this a "pretty important game" for Ersson. The 25-year-old was coming off a pair of subpar starts, including a short one two days ago when he was pulled after giving up three goals on five shots. With a quarter left in the season, the Flyers want to see how Ersson handles the load.

"It's a huge 20 games for that position because we're still evaluating Sam," Tortorella said. "So for him, it's a huge 20 games."

Ersson wasn't his best Thursday night, but he was far from the primary issue.

"It's frustrating, I know I have to be a lot better, especially this time of year," Ersson said. "But at the same time, I know I can be a lot better, too. For me, I know I'll turn it around here. I just have to focus on the right things."

Jets backup Eric Comrie stopped 21 of the Flyers' 22 shots.

• Scott Laughton and Rasmus Ristolainen, two of the Flyers' most notable trade chips, each played and were a minus-1.

"I'm not trying to get rid of a Risto or a Scott Laughton," general manager Danny Briere said in January, "but it's our duty to listen and do the right thing for the organization."

Can the deadline weigh on guys?

"I think it can, yeah, definitely," Couturier said. "Especially in the situation we're in. It is what it is, it's the business side of things. It's on us to be ready and control what we can control."

• Tortorella mentioned how he needed Konecny to essentially spark himself. With how well the Noah Cates and Couturier lines had been playing, the head coach didn't want to change things up to just benefit Konecny.

The Flyers' leading scorer entered with no goals and two assists in five games since the 4 Nations Face-Off.

Konecny agreed that the onus was on him. He referenced Claude Giroux as a guy who would spark himself.

"It didn't matter if he was going or not, he found a way to be effective," Konecny said Thursday after morning skate. "That's what I'm trying to do right now, just finding a way to be effective during the game and I think everything else will kind of take care of itself."

The line of Konecny, Laughton and Andrei Kuzmenko had an active first period but couldn't push one across. Tortorella then switched up some lines over the second and third periods, searching for a possible jolt. Nothing seemed to work.

Konecny has one goal and eight assists in the last 16 games.

• Garnet Hathaway missed a third straight game after taking a blindsided hit a week ago in Pittsburgh.

• After Friday's trade deadline, the Flyers are back in action Saturday when they host the Kraken (12:30 p.m. ET/ABC).

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