Maybe John Tortorella was right to hit the brakes.

In early October, the head coach said the Flyers had “so much to do” before they could even start talking about the playoffs as the next step.

So far, that certainly seems to be true.

The Flyers lost 4-1 to the Capitals on Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center.

Tortorella’s club is 1-4-1 and outscored 25-13. The Flyers scored just one goal in two home games. They were blown out 3-0 by the Canucks in their home opener three days ago. They have lost five in a row after winning 3-2 in the season opener against Vancouver.

“It’s still early in the season, I’m not too worried about it, there’s a lot of guys in this room that are scorers,” Travis Sanheim said. ‘We’re going here. I’m not worried at all.’

Against the Capitals, Sanheim buried a shot at 4-on-4 just 34 seconds into the third period, pulling the Flyers within 2–1. But Washington got the goal right back just over a minute later, 4-on-4, to quickly quell the Flyers’ momentum. John Carlson’s pass deflected off Egor Zamula’s skate and ended up in the net.

“If we just stay and play our game – it’s not a safe game, it’s a very aggressive game – we will achieve our goals,” Tortorella said. “There’s a fine line between playing aggressively, being on your guard and looking ahead versus cheating and hoping. That’s when (the game) goes the wrong way, back the other way.

“So that’s what we have to pay attention to here. We have a group of guys here who are going to figure this out. We just have to do it together and not lose ourselves in panic or frustration and forget how we play.” “

This was the first game of a home-versus-home back-to-back set between the Flyers and Capitals (4-1-0).

• Samuel Ersson hasn’t really been the Flyers’ problem. The 25-year-old has given the team a decent chance to win in his four starts.

He made 25 saves on 29 shots against Washington. Jakob Chychrun closed out the game with 5:53 minutes left in the third period.

The Flyers’ second power play unit gave up two shorthanded goals in the first period.

“There are times when I feel like I have to come up with a big save,” Ersson said. “Especially at the moment we might be struggling a little bit with confidence and I think this is one of those times where I have to step up and make the save there.”

Zamula struggled on that second run, allowing the Capitals to get behind him on the two goals. At the second marker, Bobby Brink received a pass, putting Washington on ice.

“The first one, I think it’s a little bit of a hard bounce for me, I was trying to keep it in the offensive zone,” Zamula said. “I think I can step back or eat it, I don’t know. The second one is just a bad turnover for us and in the back of the net. … We have to play better and support each other in the offensive zone more and more .”

Zamula finished the match minus-3. Scott Laughton was a minus-4.

At 5 on 5 in the first period, the Flyers played quite well. However, the power play was super costly, swinging the momentum completely in the Capitals’ direction.

The Flyers generated little offensively in the second and third periods. Their power play went 0-3 that night.

“I think the biggest key is the frustration level,” Tortorella said. “They want to play well, they want to win a hockey match, they want to score a goal in the home building. You can’t let the frustration turn into cheating, you can’t forget your structure, like we do.” “It’s a bit double because it’s the beginning of the year and we’re in trouble, so there’s even more pressure.”

Washington netminder Charlie Lindgren stopped 17 of the Flyers’ 18 shots. He gave up just eight shots in the final two periods. From January 18 until the end of last season, Lindgren was the only goalkeeper to play more than Ersson.

“We have a lot of confidence in this group,” Ersson said. “We know what we are capable of. At the moment it’s not really bouncing our way. We’re hitting a lot of posts, lats here and there. We’re getting chances, we’re going to convert, it’s just a question of when.”

The Flyers dropped their fifth straight game with a 4-1 loss to the Capitals on Tuesday night.

• The Flyers saw the return of a key piece in Nick Seeler. The second-pair defenseman missed the first five games after taking a puck to the peroneal nerve in his right leg on Oct. 1.

“I’ve never experienced anything like this: my leg was disabled for a while,” Seeler said Monday. “But it feels a lot better.”

The 31-year-old was a glue man for the Flyers’ back end. Dating back to last season when he missed time in March, the Flyers have gone 5-8-3 and surrendered 4.07 goals per game and 13 power play goals without Seeler.

Seeler played in place of Erik Johnson and lined up alongside Jamie Drysdale, a crucial pairing for the Flyers. Immediately after the jump, Seeler made two effective plays after a penalty kill in the first period. The club’s PK went 5 for 5.

• After playing half of last Saturday’s home opener on the left wing of the fourth line, Sean Couturier found himself back in the middle of the ice. He centered Owen Tippett and Matvei Michkov on the first line. The Flyers have had to juggle their lines a lot early in the season.

“It’s tough for Torts, we take so many penalties, it takes guys out of the flow of the game,” Couturier said. ‘He tries to involve everyone. That’s up to us, we have to be more disciplined.’

Through six games, the Flyers captain has no goals and one assist. It seems the winger experiment isn’t quite over yet.

“Sean, like everyone else, has been up and down,” Tortorella said Monday. “I actually thought his best minutes, more involved, were him playing on the wing. … I actually liked him there.”

• Jett Luchanko and Tyson Foerster were healthy scratches when Noah Cates and Nicolas Deslauriers entered the lineup.

The 18-year-old Luchanko is four games into what could be a nine-game audition. The 2024 first-round pick is winless on three shots.

“He’s making some really good plays, he’s been making a lot of good plays with his backhand,” Tortorella said Monday. “Good game, sometimes difficult. He makes some really good defensive plays, sometimes difficult. He’s 18, you know? But I still like what he brings and we’ll continue to evaluate him and see where we go from there.” “

• The Flyers and Washington are at it again on Wednesday, this time in the nation’s capital (7:30 p.m. ET/TNT).

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