John Tortorella was only happy with one player during the Philadelphia Flyers' "soft" second period against the New York Islanders on Monday: Ivan Fedotov, the man making his NHL debut in relief.
"Totally impressed," the hard-nosed head coach said after the Flyers' 4-3 overtime loss. "I put him in a hell of a spot, and he's the only goddamn player that played in the second period."
Fedotov was called into action at the end of the first intermission after Samuel Ersson allowed two goals on six shots in the opening stanza.
He was under siege during his first 20 minutes of NHL action but turned aside 16 of 17 shots in the second period. He made 19 saves on 21 shots on the night, good for a .905 save percentage.
The Russian's first major save came on a Mat Barzal breakaway.
Ivan Fedotov with the big save on Mathew Barzal. Fans love it. pic.twitter.com/zzxIucxRlI
— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) April 2, 2024
Fedotov had no complaints about the way he was thrown into the fire.
"I'm not a young guy," the KHL veteran said. "I have some experience. I know how it works. I don't care (if I'm) playing from the first minute or during the game if I need to play. I just want to help the team."
One thing caught the 27-year-old by surprise, though: He didn't know he had to switch nets for overtime and had to be shooed away by countryman Semyon Varlamov.
When your first NHL game goes to OT but nobody tells you what net you're supposed to go to. 🫣 pic.twitter.com/9tu46bxAzB
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 2, 2024
"It was funny, I was like, 'Oh, f--k,'" Fedotov said before quickly covering his mouth.
Philadelphia entered the final frame down 3-2, but Morgan Frost scored with 10 seconds left to secure a much-needed point in the playoff race.
Tortorella said some of his players deserved "high marks" for their performance in the third, but he didn't let the whole team off the hook.
"There are certain people, they don't have a clue how to play, or just don't have it in them to play in these types of situations," he said. "This is why I'm glad we're playing them. We have to figure things out as far as what we're going to become as a team here. That was embarrassing in the second period for the Philadelphia Flyer uniform."
The Flyers are back in third place in the Metropolitan Division. They don't play again until Friday, but Tortorella dismissed the notion that some time off would be beneficial.
"If you don't have enough balls to play in these types of games, rest doesn't do us any good."
