Flyers' Tortorella not ready to talk playoffs: 'I'm not even going there'

Though his Philadelphia Flyers are red-hot, head coach John Tortorella isn't allowing himself to look too far down the road.

"Don't even start asking me those questions," he said when asked about the possibility of battling for a playoff spot down the stretch. "We're in end of December. You don't know what your team is until the end of January, you really don't. I'm not even going there."

After many expected the Flyers to be among the league's worst teams heading into the campaign, they're currently sitting in second place in the Metropolitan Division with an 18-10-3 record. Philadelphia's .629 point percentage is the ninth highest in the NHL. Tortorella's squad has gone 7-0-1 in December and is the only team in the league without a regulation loss this month.

Philadelphia missed the postseason by 17 points during Tortorella's first year behind the bench last campaign. The Flyers haven't made the playoffs since 2020, when the New York Islanders eliminated them in the second round.

One area of improvement for the Flyers is that they're scoring first more often. They've potted the game's first goal in 16 of 31 contests this season after opening the scoring just 32 times in 2022-23. Philadelphia owns a sparkling 15-1 record when scoring first this campaign.

Tortorella won the Stanley Cup in 2004 while piloting the Tampa Bay Lightning to the franchise's first-ever championship. He owns an all-time record of 56-64 in the playoffs.

The Flyers haven't lifted Lord Stanley's Mug since 1975. They last appeared in the Stanley Cup Final in 2010, falling to the Chicago Blackhawks in six games.

Philadelphia will be chasing its fourth straight victory against the Nashville Predators on Thursday.