Photo Credit: NHL.com
Following a 4-1 loss on Sunday night against the Florida Panthers. Flyers’ Head Coach John Tortorella once again sent shock waves through the NHL, as he threw his hands up at the podium and walked out of the post-game presser after just 38 seconds. He threw his hands up following a question about his goalie, Felix Sandström’s play on that particular night. A night that Sandström allowed two questionable goals that could have been saved, Tortorella walked out of the presser in defense of his goaltender at the time. What Tortorella does so often is place attention on himself, rather than his team playing poorly or his goaltender that arguably could have played better.
In the same token, Tortorella has preached accountability all season, and throughout his tenure as the Flyers’ Head coach for that matter. Yesterday, Tortorella apologized for his behavior from this past Sunday night, and he also apologized to Sandström saying that he is “Trying”, “I made a terrible mistake with you guys (Media),” Tortorella said at morning skate yesterday. “My body language was wrong. What I should have said to you was Sandy is trying, he’s trying. He did not deserve that from me, it was wrong.”
“My body language was wrong. What I should have said to you was Sandy is trying, he’s trying. He did not deserve that from me, it was wrong.” – John Tortorella
This latest incident comes less than a week following the benchings to the Captain, Sean Couturier. You don’t bench the Captain, and expect to not catch any flack which Tortorella is used to. Tortorella heard this from many fans and pundits alike, however, in one of the biggest games of the season. Just maybe that was a good deflection of focusing the attention on Tortorella, and not his struggling hockey team that lost three out of four. Maybe he wanted them to play for the Captain, in a game they lost to the Maple Leafs 6-2 just a week prior.
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Then, both Couturier and Tortorella could have handled the situation better. For starters, all Couturier had to do was confirm he wasn’t playing, and give a general statement “I wish I could play, but it’s not my decision and I have to move past it with working harder,” but Couturier instead said, “I’ve been putting the work in for a while. I’ve been struggling, but I’ve been working on my game, and it’s frustrating the way I’ve been treated around here lately. But it is what it is.”
A player should try to refrain from appearing that there may be a rift, between said player and coach, especially to the media and pundits alike. In turn, all Tortorella had to do was be honest and just say he’s been banged up here as of late, he could use the extra rest.
With this latest apology it looks like Tortorella has grown, grown into a more maturer coach. I think in the end he realized that this is indeed a young hockey team, and with the youth comes a more fragile mind. It was good of Torts to apologize to his netminder. Maybe in the end run it will help Sandström’s confidence. Either way, Torts gets some kudos here for him apologizing in the end.
