Flyers 4, Canucks 1: Torts hockey wins the day, again

Safe is death, John Tortorella has decreed more than once.

It didn’t work well in Vancouver, but you can see how it’s working in Philadelphia: his team isn’t deep on talent, but it’s deep on hard work and that’s why they’ve won 19 games on the season.

The 19th win was Thursday at Rogers Arena, as the Flyers beat up on Tortorella’s old Canucks and skated away 4-1 winners. And for Tortorella, it was his 723rd career win, putting him 10th all-time.

NEXT GAME:

Senators at Canucks

When and where: Tuesday at 7 p.m. | Rogers Arena

TV: SN Pacific | Radio: Sportsnet 650

None of the hockey on this night was pretty, but the coach they call Torts won’t care.

He got the win. That’s what counts.

There are no surprises to how the Flyers play.

“We talked about it before the game like we knew the way they play, they work hard, they play hard,” centre Teddy Blueger, the only Canuck to score on this night, said post-game.

“We knew it wasn’t gonna be an easy game. I don’t think it was a case of like, we were thinking, you know, this is gonna be an easy game coming off the break, whatever, but it’s hard to put a finger on exactly what it was but for whatever reason, we were just a little flat.”

Post-game, Rick Tocchet was disappointed in how his team played. The Canucks couldn’t get anything going, then blew three consecutive tires late in the second, which decided the game.

“Bad first period. We weren’t invested. They were. They came at us and we didn’t have any push. Then the second I thought, we just came back a little bit and then that five minute explosion, right, those three goals, huge mistakes,” he said.

“They lay their cards on the table: ‘we’re coming at you.’ And so we shouldn’t have been surprised, but in the first period for some reason we were on our heels.”

Tortorella, of course, was pleased by the win.

“I thought we were patient, I thought we checked well, and you just wait for a team to open up,” he said.

Ugly second

After an absolutely hideous first — somehow there were 20 shots on goal between the two teams — the Canucks looked to slowly be seizing control of the game.

Still, they couldn’t make much happen.

And then everything went pear-shaped.

It wasn’t a good night for the officials on the whole. They called Tyler Myers for interference on Owen Tippett, who essentially skated into the giant defenceman.

The Flyers have the worst power play in the NHL, but even they saw their chance and somehow snagged a goal by Egor Zamula to go up 1-0. Zamula floated a shot from the point that got through everyone, including Canucks goalie Casey DeSmith, for his second goal of the season — both against Vancouver.

Two shifts later, the Flyers scored again. The Canucks got caught defending an odd-man rush and the very handy defenceman Sean Walker jumped up into the play to take a cross-zone pass and wire a shot back against the grain.

“It’s on me for sure,” the big defenceman said about the turnover.

It was an awful stretch, one you knew would kill the Canucks’ chances.

“I think obviously everyone’s pissed off in here. Obviously we didn’t come and play our best hockey,” Noah Juulsen lamented. “We had a couple days off and that affected us but it’s no excuse to come out and you know, lay an egg. They’ve travelled and did all that.”

Nothing doing

Nils Höglander got benched in favour of Pius Suter in the third.

Asked about it, Tocchet started answering before the question was over.

“I didn’t see anything from anybody. I just trying to get people going,” he said, flatly.

Nail in the Coffin

Ryan Poehling is fast — one of the faster skaters in the NHL.

But when you’re on the power play, just take his space away.

And if you’re not covering him, make sure you cover the other guy.

He didn’t have Hathaway covered and the gritty forward got two chances at the puck, scoring on the second one.

That iced the game. The Canucks had pulled the game to 3-1 on a nice Teddy Blueger goal 25 seconds into the third period and were overall controlling play before Hathaway’s tally.

They were just 10 seconds into a power play that you figured they’d do everything they could to score on, but they didn’t.

Instead they let the game just slip away and it was of their own making.

Too loose

The NHL’s takeaway stat is as hard to sort as the giveaway stat — where’s the border line on some turnovers being take-aways versus giveaways? — but taken together, they do give you a sense of whether a team was responsible with the puck or not.

That’s not a winning strategy.

“We did turn over a lot,” Nikita Zadorov said. “I think we didn’t have speed. We weren’t connected on the ice, especially in the first period and we kind of carried it into a second.”

“They made it hard on us and we just kind of caved I think,” Ian Cole added. “I don’t think we had the proper response to the challenge that they put forth.”

Frustrated goalie

You had to feel for Casey DeSmith. He’s had such a strong season. And rarely has he seen his team commit gaffe after gaffe like they did on this night.

He didn’t have much chance on any of the first three goals — perhaps he might have liked to just be “bigger” on the Zamula goal, but there were a lot of bodies between goal and shooter — and then there was the fourth goal, which was a total breakdown in front of him, which he did everything he could to bail his team out on.

Add it all up and you can appreciate that DeSmith would be frustrated post-game.

He was so frustrated in fact that he told a reporter that he just didn’t want to speak post-game, which is definitely understandable.

No surprise

Juulsen threw a huge hit on Joel Farabee in the third period, which led to the Canucks’ power play that they woefully stuffed up.

Cam Atkinson of all people came after Juulsen and challenged him to a fight.

The fisticuffs didn’t actually amount to much. And while some may be frustrated a clean hit drew such a response, Juulsen said he wasn’t surprised he was challenged about the hit.

Bad ice

One other thing the Flyers figured out better than the Canucks was how to handle the ice.

The Rogers Arena ice starts turning really poor when the weather outside turns moist and the fact there’s been this midwinter warmth hasn’t helped matters.

The Canucks should be used to it, but the Flyers weren’t. Farabee wasn’t impressed with the surface but said the Flyers adapted the best they could.

“I think the hardest part playing here for me honestly is the ice. I find the ice is — no disrespect to the Canucks — but the ice is really bad here. So I find the puck bounces a lot of the game so you gotta just really simplify,” he said.

The Torts way

Tortorella hockey is a unique brand, no doubt.

So is Torts style, where for a few years now he’s been pushing past the traditional coach attire. Some games he still does wear a jacket and tie, but on other nights he’ll wear a sweater or a quarter-zip under his jacket.

And then there was Thursday, where he simply went with a classic coach’s windbreaker. No jacket. Certainly no tie.

The Captain returns

Markus Naslund got a standing ovation and saluted the fans.

In a very dull first period, it was the unquestioned highlight of the early going.

The former captain is in town helping one of his kids move.