Breaking news! … The Flyers need to score more. Any team that’s lost six of its first seven games could only readily agree. Any team that’s 1-5-1 heading into a game at Wells Fargo Center on Saturday against a swaggering Minnesota Wild team with a 5-0-2 record can’t deny it. Any such team with John Tortorella as its coach certainly has to hear it. Even if he’s trying to layer reality among the demands to get better everywhere. “We’re young, we’re rebuilding. We’re going to take some gut punches,” Tortorella said after a Friday practice. “But we’re better than this, easy.” Not only do the Flyers need to score more — their 17 goals over the first seven games was better than only five clubs through Thursday, and second-worst in the Eastern Conference (thank you, Islanders) — but that’s only part of their numerical problems. The 31 goals the Flyers have allowed is better than only four NHL teams. Of course, suddenly losing starting goalie Carter Hart last season due to what’s still a pending trial on sexual assault charges didn’t help matters there. The newsworthy conclusion, then … “There is a lot of hockey left,” team captain Sean Couturier said. “It’s a long season, everyone goes through these kinds of slumps and stretches at one point. It’s unfortunate for us to start the year that way. There’s a lot of hockey left but we have to turn things around quick or we’ll be out of it soon.” “Out of it” meaning a playoff chase, not this losing streak. Tortorella knows the season is a marathon. Imagine one that extends much longer with the way his players … well, aren’t playing. All the optimism of a year ago dissipated in a late-season rock drop that led to a fourth consecutive playoff miss. That wasn’t supposed to be a preview for the start of the next season, however. There was a lot of optimism in training camp over the unexpected arrival of skilled Russian teen Matvei Michkov and the equally unexpected promotion of junior 2024 draft pick Jett Luchanko to the big club (so far), but they haven’t seen much solid teaching from their older teammates. Michkov is actually leading the club in scoring with seven points, averaging a point a game. But Tortorella expended a lot of wind Friday wondering why he hasn’t found a solid front line pair of veterans to play next to the skilled kid. “It just hasn’t worked,” Tortorella said. “When a number of guys are struggling, it’s hard to figure out who’s going to be with who.” For this Wild game, he indicated Travis Konecny would be on a line with Michkov, with coach’s fingers firmly crossed. “When those two play together, TK and Mich, there’s some chemistry,” Tortorella added. But he said the drawn out attempt to pair the likes of Owen Tippett and Morgan Frost with Michkov is at an end. Either way he has to find a lot more answers than merely that. “I’ve got a laundry list of things we need to work on,” Tortorella said. “But as we talked to the team today, you have to pick and choose which ones to work on because you can’t get it done all at once. “We’re going to get slapped around a little bit here, we are. We’re just young. At deadline, we moved some people last year … but we have been very transparent. This year and next year, we’re not bringing in free agents. We have to develop our kids. Where we’re at as a team right now, and it falls on the coaching staff and players, our kids have got to play better that played last year. “Tip (Owen Tippett) has to play better, Tyson (Foerster) has to play better. … That’s how we survive,” he added. “But we’re going to get punched. We are, there’s no question about it. But we’re not as bad as this.” Flyers fans can breathe a sigh of relief at that last statement. Even a veteran like Couturier can, especially since he has all of one assist to show for his first seven games. But hey, his minus-4 is actually one of the best plus-minus scores among the club’s forwards. Yeah, that’s how bad they’ve been. “Yeah, I’m not going to lie. You want to contribute offensively and score some goals,” Couturier said. “But at the same time I can’t change my game, I have to be a player and pay attention to details and play the right way. If I start deviating and start cheating and start looking for offense, it’ll open up a whole lot that maybe is not too great for our team. I just have to stick with it and it’ll come.” • • • Luchanko has played in four of the seven games thus far and is scoreless, averaging only 14 minutes of ice time when he’s had the chance. Tortorella indicated Luchanko’s chances of sticking past the nine-games-played period of when juniors can be with their NHL team without it affecting their years of service is up for debate. Tortorella said he’s more concerned with giving other players ice time right now. “In the mess we’re in right now at the start of the year, I’m not looking for an 18-year-old to try and get us out of it,” he said.