PHILADELPHIA — John Tortorella likes to look at the NHL's 82-game schedule in segments.

The Flyers coach breaks the long season into 10- to 15-game chunks to analyze how things are going. "That's going to be frightening," the bench boss said before the Flyers game in Boston about the opening block.

After 12 games, the Flyers are 4-7-1, with two of those wins coming in the last week. Yes, things could be better, a lot better. But while the shots on goal are low, chemistry has been inconsistent, and overall play needs to be elevated, one statistic may be the root of all that ails the Flyers: blocked shots.

"I think when you see this team block shots, it's playing to its identity. It's a team that's being hard, it's a team that is willing to do that. I think that has been very inconsistent as the beginning of the year has started here," Tortorella said Saturday after the Flyers' 3-0 loss to a struggling Boston Bruins squad.

The bench boss continued to answer the question, talking about the past few games and how they have been up and down in terms of how hard he thought his group played. And then Tortorella wrapped it up with an interesting take:

"Something has to happen as far as puck control and having the puck more in the offensive zone for us to get a full game in, for us to be a complete team," he said. "So, I don't know if shots blocked transforms into that; I think shots blocked transformed into our mindset as far as how hard you have to play."

Our mindset.

Playing hard and — we'll say it — playing gritty are hallmarks of the Flyers organization since the days of the Broad Street Bullies. It's also part of every Tortorella team. During his tenure with the New York Rangers, the team was known to be a shot-blocking machine; over his four full seasons, New York ranked fourth in the NHL (4,563).

And he has brought that same mentality with him to the Flyers. Now in his third season, the Flyers finished each of the first two in second place in the NHL — the team finished with 1,411 shots blocked in 2022-23, and 1,533 last season. The Flyers are second in the NHL since Tortorella took over through games on Saturday (3,163).

Through the first 12 games of this season, the Flyers have 219 blocked shots (18.10 blocks per 60 minutes). It's better than last season's numbers through the first 12 games (178 and 14.79), but lower than 2022-23 (238 and 19.61). One thing that's helped the Orange and Black's numbers this season are two outlier games: 28 blocked shots in their win against the Bruins on Tuesday, and another 24 in their win over the St. Louis Blues on Thursday.

But look at those losses, especially four of the past five. They didn't even hit a baker's dozen with 12 against the Vancouver Canucks, Washington Capitals, and Montreal Canadiens at home, plus only 11 on the road against the Capitals.

In their four wins this season, the Flyers have averaged 23.5 shots blocked, with their one overtime loss — 3-2 to the Edmonton Oilers in Game 3 of the season — seeing 21 shots stopped before reaching the goalie. On the flip side, the team is averaging just 14.86 blocked shots in its the seven losses.

That's a drastic drop-off. And only one of those games saw the team break the 20-shots-blocked mark, the 6-4 loss to the Seattle Kraken on Oct. 17.

So why the focus on blocked shots? Without even delving into the numbers, the eye test will tell you the Flyers have big problems up and down the ice. For most of the season they have been "disconnected" for 200 feet. The flow to their game is missing. Could it really be that simple? Probably not, but when you watch games, and the Flyers play to their identity with a hard-nosed style and have a high-end compete level, which is statistically shown by more than 20 blocked shots in a game, everything seems to come together.

"I think when we're blocking pucks, it keeps the bench involved," forward Owen Tippett said. "Obviously, guys build off that, and it's another chance to build momentum. And, obviously, you want to try and block as many shots as you can and take the workload off the goalies.

"We want to play as best we can in front of them and, obviously, it's something that I don't think we did enough early on in the year. I think the last couple games we've been blocking more, and I think it's leading into our game. Obviously, it puts energy on our bench, and guys are building off it, and you see more guys buying in."

The buy-in is critical for the Flyers. Across all three seasons under Tortorella, when they block close to (or more than) 20 shots, they earn at least a point. When they block closer to 15 or fewer, they lose.

"They're blocking the right shots too," goalie Sam Ersson said after the Flyers' win against the St. Louis Blues on Thursday. "They're not trying to get in front of everything. They're knowing kind of what shots they can leave to me. And I think that's huge. And it builds chemistry between me and the guys in front of me."

What about at the other end of the ice? The Flyers are not a goal-scoring machine — they finished the past two seasons ranked 29th and 27th, respectively, in goals per game and are currently tied for 28th. But the one thing that stands out is that when they block shots, they not only allow fewer goals, they also score more — a lot more to be fair — and they have more time at five-on-five.

Maybe when you're blocking shots and falling into the mindset of playing hard, things click elsewhere. Feet are constantly moving to be ready to block a puck and, if it's not a block, to move it. If the feet are moving, there's a lesser chance of getting called for penalties like holding, hooking, and tripping because you're next to your guy and not needing to slow them down to stay in the play.

"When you don't have the puck, you got to dedicate yourself defensively and be in shot lanes and cut passing lanes," captain Sean Couturier said. "You want to have the puck to really have some [offensive]-zone time, have puck possession, and generate some offense. So I just feel we're maybe chasing it a little bit throughout the games."

Whether or not Tortorella wanted to buy into the idea that blocking shots results in action at the other end, the statistics show that when the Flyers are playing their brand of hockey — with a major emphasis on laying their bodies on the line — they win games.

Ersson, who was injured in Saturday's afternoon game against the Bruins, summed it up perfectly on Thursday.

"This is how we have to play, and we know that," he said. "I think you can kind of sense it. Like when we're blocking shots, when we're doing the small things right, you can kind of feel it on the bench and on the ice that we're rolling. I think that gives us confidence, and we know that we're a very good team when we play like this."

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