Ivan Provorov

In an hourlong interview with The Inquirer, Tortorella dished on several key topics including his coaching philosophy, making the team “harder to play against” and developing young players. John Tortorella’s reputation, from his fiery outbursts to tough-love coaching style, precedes him. However, we recently sat down with the...

There aren’t many teams across the NHL that can say they endured a more disappointing season than the Detroit Red Wings. One team that can, however, is the Philadelphia Flyers, who finished with a record of 25-46-11 despite adding big names like Ryan Ellis and Rasmus Ristolainen in the 2021 offseason. Because of their struggles, the Flyers hold the fifth pick in the 2022 draft, and general manager (GM) Chuck Fletcher is under pressure to deliver a perennial playoff team to the City of Brotherly Love.

Right now, it’s not much fun being a Philadelphia Flyers fan. Except for next month’s draft, there’s not much to get excited about — unless the Flyers commit to a full rebuild and start tearing things down. A rebuild can be fun. Seeing the young players...

There is a strong sentiment brewing in Philadelphia that perhaps defenseman Ivan Provorov and the Flyers are looking to go their separate ways. The defenseman was quite agitated when he felt the need to defend his play this season and Elliotte Friedman suggested this has led some to believe this is a sign he’s punched “his ticket out of Philadelphia.”

Ivan Provorov is one of the more complex Flyers on the roster. Is he good? Is he overrated? Is he a good defender or is he more offensive minded? Not being able to tell what you have in him is not a good start to this conversation. After six seasons, Provorov should be much less of an enigma than he is.

Provorov had a goal, an assist, five shots, five blocked shots and a plus-3 rating in Thursday's 6-3 win over Montreal. Provorov was excellent on both ends in this one. He gave Philadelphia a 2-0 lead with his ninth goal of the season in the first and assisted on Travis Konecny's tally in the second. The plus-3 performance tied Provorov's season best, improving his rating to a still-subpar minus-19.

With the Flyers losing Rasmus Ristolainen and Cam York to injury, the team was forced to make an emergency call up on the backend. Egor Zamula joined the team and was in the lineup for the 4-0 shutout loss to the New York Rangers. Despite the loss, Zamula drew praise from his head coach.

Provorov had two goals and an assist in a 6-3 loss to Toronto on Saturday. Provorov snapped an 11-game point drought in a big way. He tied it 2-2 in the second period when he wired a one-timer in the slot off a pretty pass from Kevin Hayes. And then he cut the lead to 4-3 at 12:23 in the third when his point shot deflected in off David Kampf's leg. This was the first time Provorov scored twice since Jan. 4, 2018 when he did the same against the Isles. His season has been an anchor around the necks of fantasy managers. Prior to Saturday's outburst, Provorov had just one assist in his previous 17 games.

Provorov is in the midst of a nine-game point drought. Provorov has been stuck in a rut lately, only tallying a single point in his past 15 contests. He has 20 points in 62 games this season -- a drop off in production from last year's 26 points in 56 appearances.

Immediately after the Flyers’ overtime loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday night, interim head coach Mike Yeo voiced his frustration with the team’s inability to close out a winnable game. He suggested that changes to the lineup could be coming in the form of healthy scratches, fourth-line relegations, and ice time deductions.