A Flyers player was beat on the bench gasping for air, one looked ugly, this is what Camp Torts is all about: Unleashed

Photo Credit: Rebecca McCormick

The Flyers hired a former Stanley Cup winning Head Coach John Tortorella to a four year deal, worth $16 million. Some forget he won a Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning back in the 2003-04 season. Tortorella is known to be a hard-nosed coach, who commands the most from his players. He is not afraid of benching or calling out star studded players either.

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This could be one reason why the majority of the Flyers team has reported early for training camp, they know it’s going to be grueling, they know it’s going to be a very “Difficult Camp” as John Tortorella said earlier in the offseason:

“For me, it’s not physical. For them it is. You watch them and it has to be. I get that, and I appreciate that. But for me, I’m watching the mental part of it. Especially, with a new team. There are going to be mental and physical tests when they don’t even know it’s happening. I was really happy about how the guys handled themselves today.” – John Tortorella explained his camp after day one of rigorous skating

The Flyers on paper appear to be a bottom five team in the league, especially after losing the services of Ryan Ellis (For the season and possibly for his career), Sean Couturier, and Joel Farabee is a wild card for opening night at this point. One had to believe that a no non-sense coach was in the cards in the distant future. This current Flyers team needs a sense of direction and guidance, as they really had an embarrassing campaign this past season of historic proportions in a bad way, “There’s going to be harder skates than today as we go through camp,” Tortorella said. “It’s not to pound our chest and just bury them. We want to test them and it develops a camaraderie. They kind of look at you like, You’re not going to get to me. I think that’s the attitude we’re trying to develop is a will.”

Camp Torts was underway in a big way, and even Mason Millman who was sitting on the bench for at least ten minutes after his session was completed was completely beat gasping for air with his water bottle in hand, but Torts came over and patted him on the back. Conditioning is an important aspect in this sport, and this could be one reason why the Flyers have notoriously received slow starts for the past 6 or 7 seasons, maybe they haven’t been conditioned properly, “We were probably two repetitions into the skate and I went down to Shawsy and I said, ‘S—, Shawsy, I’m not sure what’s going to happen here with Nic. I was serious, and I watched that guy and he was ugly as hell, but he got through it. He never stopped. He finished to where he was supposed to finish.”

Tortorella is not afraid to call out stars, as he had a rocky relationship with Patrik Laine when he was a member of the Columbus Blue Jackets, but he just wants the players to hold themselves accountable for a mistake(s). That is what he is referring to when he says the locker room was splintered:

“The overall view I got from all the conversations I had was that I think more accountability needs to be brought in here…I want them to say hey coach, we got this.” – John Tortorella on more accountability in the locker room and on the ice

Chuck Fletcher just wants the Flyers to become harder to play against, and John Tortorella emphasizes that same notion, as well.

This won’t be an easy overnight process, however, at least the Flyers should be a fun team to watch again, a competitive team. The Flyers were soft last season, in a sense they were not competitive for three quarters of the season. How this will work out is anyone’s guess, but hopefully this is a long-term investment for the Flyers, as Tortorella becomes the fifth Head Coach hired in six seasons for the orange and black. This is a trend hopefully the Flyers have cured with hiring Tortorella.

One thing remains clear, with the vast majority of the Flyers in town well before Training Camp ensues, it appears they are preparing for a “Difficult Camp.” Most are trying to impress first year Flyers coach in Tortorella, even though John is most likely familiar with all aforementioned players. However, the players know it will be tough from here on out, and that Torts will command the most out of them. That is what good coaches do, and Torts is that coach.