PHILADELPHIA (AP) - After seeing his team lose for the sixth consecutive time, Columbus Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella was in no mood to analyze what’s going wrong with his team days before the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
“I am not going to pick apart what my team is right now because it’s so hard to judge in these type of circumstances,” Tortorella said after Saturday’s 4-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. “It’s human nature.”
Forwards Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Jakub Voracek and defensemen Michael Del Zotto and Ivan Provorov scored goals for the Flyers, who snapped a two-game losing streak.
The Flyers have won five of their past seven games (5-1-1), but will close out the regular season Sunday night against the Carolina Hurricanes having missed the playoffs for the third time in five years.
The Blue Jackets are 0-5-1 in their past six games and have been outscored 21-11 during their losing streak. They received goals from defenseman Seth Jones and forward Boone Jenner.
Columbus has also gone 2-6-2 since clinching a playoff berth on March 19. They close the regular season Sunday in Toronto and will visit the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday to start the first round of the playoffs.
“Self-inflicted wounds,” Blue Jackets forward Cam Atkinson said. “We have to get back to the way we’re capable of playing and that’s rolling all four lines and playing with a little bit of arrogance.”
“It’s not like on Wednesday we can just flip the switch and expect to win. We have to play the way we have all season and we’ve gotten away from it.”
With the win, Mason improved to 26-21-8. He is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent this summer and with Anthony Stolarz expected to get the start on Sunday, it might have been Mason’s final game in a Flyers jersey.
He ranks third among Flyers goalies in games (231) and wins (104).
“I’m definitely well aware of it,” Mason said. “I’m not in a position here where moving forward I have any indication of what’s going to be happening.
“Obviously, there’s one game left in the season, then after that I become a free agent. Leading into summer time, there will be an uneasy, exciting, stressful time, I’m sure.”
Columbus’ Sergei Bobrovsky has lost four straight, allowing 13 goals in that span.
The Flyers grabbed a 2-0 lead on goals 1:32 apart by Bellemare and Del Zotto.
Bellemare scored his fourth goal of the season on a snap shot 12:52 into the first period and Del Zotto found the back of the net for his sixth of the season after Bobrovsky lost his balance just outside the crease.
The Blue Jackets drew within 2-1 just 1:07 into the second period on Jones’ power-play goal, his 12th of the season, which deflected off Provorov and past Mason. The power-play goal snapped an 0-for-20 drought for Columbus.
The Flyers restored their two-goal lead on Voracek’s 20th goal of the season and fifth on the power play. Provorov made it 4-1 with his seventh goal of the season, a rising shot that beat Bobrovsky over his blocker.
“We can’t let panic come into our game,” Jones said. “We have to stay more composed within the game.”
The Blue Jackets again drew within two goals on Jenner’s 18th goal of the season, which caromed off the stick of Del Zotto and past Mason.
NOTES: Blue Jackets D Zach Werenski missed his third straight game with an upper body injury. Rookie D Gabriel Carlsson, a first-round draft pick of the Blue Jackets in 2015, made his NHL debut in his place. … Flyers rookie RW Mike Vecchione, a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award that went to Denver’s Will Butcher as college hockey’s top player, was a healthy scratch. … Before the game, the Flyers honored former player and scout Ilkka Sinisalo, who died at age 58 on Wednesday, with a moment of silence. … Former Vice President Joe Biden attended the game.
UP NEXT
Blue Jackets: Visit the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday night.
Flyers: Host the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday night.
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