At the end of last season, John Tortorella wanted to make it clear that the Flyers were "a ways away."
This season, as they trudge through the mud of an adversity-filled March, the head coach knows that remains true.
As the Flyers hovered around .500 and then traded away five players in the span of five weeks, Tortorella "could see where this was all going." The rebuild would be felt down the stretch and he'd have to remind himself of the big picture.
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"We still have a ways to go," Tortorella said 10 days ago in a sit-down interview with NBC Sports Philadelphia's Ashlyn Sullivan. "We've got to stay true. We brought ourselves to this point and going through what I think is the most difficult time of this process, which is right now. Then just suck it up and just deal with it."
Here are three takeaways from the interview with Tortorella.
His job status
Tortorella is in the third season of a four-year contract with the Flyers. After progressing in Years 1 and 2 under Tortorella, the Flyers have taken a considerable step backward this season.
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Last season, Tortorella opened eyes by putting a rebuilding team in a driver's seat of the playoff race. It took nine losses in the Flyers' last 11 games to knock them out on the final day of the regular season.
In "such an important" Year 3, Tortorella's club owns the Eastern Conference's second-to-worst record at 28-35-9. The Flyers have lost 10 of their last 11 games (1-9-1) and 18 of the last 24 (6-15-3).
How much of that has been because of circumstances? Goaltending problems, trades and injuries haven't helped. One would think general manager Danny Briere will take that into account when evaluating Tortorella's future this offseason.
The Flyers lost their No. 1 goalie in January of last season (more on that below) and have operated like a rebuilding team. Ahead of the last two trade deadlines, they've moved Sean Walker, Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost, Scott Laughton, Andrei Kuzmenko and Erik Johnson. Down the stretch of this season, after trading five players, the Flyers haven't had Garnet Hathaway in March and have missed Rasmus Ristolainen for the last six games.
At 66 years old, Tortorella said he's committed to coaching and seeing it through with the Flyers. He wants to stay behind the bench. He understands, at some point, that won't be his call, but he doesn't dwell on it.
"I'm a realist, I know there's going to be a certain time when it's time for another voice and Danny's going to have to make that call," Tortorella said. "But I'm going to coach the team the way I think it should be coached, I'm not going to make decisions to try to keep my job; I'm going to make decisions to try to do the best for this organization. And when it's my time, Danny's going to let me know."
No Hart has hurt
Tortorella has not sugarcoated the Flyers' goaltending situation.
"It scares the crap out of me," the head coach said before the season.
Last season, the Flyers lost Carter Hart, who awaits trial in the Hockey Canada sexual assault case. They've had inexperience and instability in net ever since then.
"When Carter left, that threw this into turmoil," Tortorella said in January, similar to his comments toward the end of last season. "It is what it is, we've lived with it, we continue to live with it and we do the best we can."
Tortorella reiterated the absence of Hart.
"I'm not laying blame, but that goaltending position, we have to fix that," he said. "You do not win in this game without good goaltending. It has not been good. I say that and then I come back with, how can we expect it to be good when we have such inexperience at that position?"
The Flyers have used three goalies this season: Samuel Ersson, Ivan Fedotov and Aleksei Kolosov. Ersson has been tasked with No. 1 responsibilities for the first time in his NHL career, while Fedotov and Kolosov have only 34 combined starts at this level.
The Flyers entered Monday with an NHL-low .873 save percentage. Last season, they finished tied with the Senators for the league's worst mark at .884.
Tortorella hopes the Flyers' patience with the position is rewarded in their rebuild.
"Quite honestly, I think if we have Carter Hart the whole year last year, we're in the playoffs by six or seven points," Tortorella said. "I really believe that, I don't care what people think, I'm not making an excuse — that was a huge blow to us. I think we're in there.
"But then I look at it, does that help you? Because when you start thinking that you're there and you get in, do you skip some steps? I think the organization has really held strong, in being close, down to the last day, and not trying to get too far ahead too quickly. Because that's when you make your mistakes."
Having Rocky's back
Interestingly at the end of last season, Tortorella didn't want to pin the Flyers' power play woes on a lack of talent. He felt the Flyers should have been better with the players that they had.
Then this season, they saw the addition of Matvei Michkov and a full season of Jamie Drysdale. They've had a more collaborative process in trying to help the power play. But the desired improvement has not been there.
The Flyers have a 13.8 power play percentage on the season and have gone 0 for 30 in March. Compared to last season, Tortorella changed his tune on the topic of personnel.
"We need to add skill, we need a power play quarterback just to quarterback it," he said. "There are a lot of different things. Certainly not shying away, it has been a struggle, it has been a struggle. We're trying to get better at it each and every day, but no one person should be blamed for that."
Tortorella defended assistant coach Rocky Thompson, who is in his third season overseeing the units. The issues on the power play preceded Thompson's arrival as the Flyers sported a 12.6 percentage the season before he was hired.
But inevitably, Thompson has felt some heat for the numbers not changing much over his three seasons.
"That's the stuff that bothers me, when I have people ripping my coaching staff," Tortorella said. "If I could have the people that think Rocky is some sort of idiot sit down and watch his presentation and how he handles himself as a coach and how he does things, I wish they could see that before those comments are thrown around. Because he is such an intelligent coach."
Once again, the power play will be something the Flyers have to address in the offseason. How they do it is the big question.