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.

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.

"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."

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Montreal Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis is hoping Josh Anderson's down season will just be a "one-off" for the two-time 20-goal scorer.

"We know Josh can score goals in this league. ... There's a lot in that player," the bench boss said Monday.

"He hasn't forgotten how to score goals," St. Louis continued. "Sometimes, the game gets hard a little bit, and it's hard to come out of it. We know there's more in there, and he'll get that back."

Anderson mustered just eight goals and 18 points in 69 games this season while being handcuffed to an abysmal 6.3 shooting percentage. However, he has generated around 17 individual expected goals at all strengths, per Natural Stat Trick.

The 29-year-old suited up for exactly 69 outings in each of his previous two campaigns but garnered far better results than this season.

It took Anderson until Dec. 4 to score his first goal of the 2023-24 campaign, which kicked off a run in which he potted six tallies in 10 games. However, he quickly fell into another slump and scored just once in 22 outings.

A lower-body injury forced him to miss four games during that stretch.

"I think the effort is there, I think the intentions are there," St. Louis said. "It could be a hard year for him. I think he expects more."

He added: "For him, it's just, try to find some confidence down the stretch here, feel good about himself going into the summer."

Anderson has nine more games to turn his performances around. He's currently riding a 12-game goalless streak.

"I think (these games) are really important individually and for our team," Anderson said. "I think that for me personally, I just gotta keep doing the right things, get back to my game, using speed, physicality, and trying to shoot as many pucks as I can.

"Keep it simple."

Anderson is signed for three more seasons with a $5-million cap hit. His pact includes a five-team no-trade list.

The Canadiens take on the Florida Panthers on Tuesday.

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