Photo Credit: NHL.com
“It’s the f..kin Philadelphia Flyers. The first time I went over the Walt Whitman Bridge, I’ve been stuck here in Voorhees, it’s f..kin Philly. I got so f..kin excited.,” Flyers Head Coach John Tortorella emphatically said during his first presser
If this can’t pump up a team, I don’t know what will. The quote above reminds me of Herb Brooks talking to his American team before playing the Russian team “Tonight is your night, there night is done,” and the rest is history.. Tortorella gets it, and he’s trying to build a connection with the fanbase of Philadelphia. 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. This was one reason why the majority of the Flyers team reported early for training camp. They also knew that they would have to give their all to fight to stay in the lineup.
It’s become apparent as some have excelled, and some have had difficulties learning this, but on most nights the Flyers do not have a problem with effort. The team may not be talented enough to beat stiff competition or playoff bound teams on a nightly basis, but they do fight and claw their way into games nine times out of 10, “I think we need to be with them,” John Tortorella said. “We’re done, we’re not making the playoffs, but our guys continue to play hard. If they continue to do that, and I don’t doubt they’re not – there haven’t been many nights in this season, in this godforsaken season, that I’ve had to worry about effort. I don’t think I will for the remainder, so I need to show them the respect and try to be with them and try to push them along. Continue to teach, but in the proper way in what we’re going through right now.”
“We’re done, we’re not making the playoffs, but our guys continue to play hard.” – John Tortorella
These are the buildings blocks that are being instilled in this teaching season this season. Next season maybe Tortorella and his coaching staff will expect something different in terms of finishing games, but this mindset of competing and staying with teams is being instilled this season. In addition, this is adding to the locker room culture of being down, but not defeated.
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“Big part of our job right now is that,” John Tortorella said. “They battle back tonight. I thought these last four games we’ve packed a lot of good minutes into it – lose four. That’s a big part of our job is when you’re teaching and when you’re in this situation, we want to show them some stuff that’s working that they’re doing, that it’s correct and they’re executing. Right now, it’s not about picking them apart. There’s a lot of that in this game tonight. I was just talking to Roc about that. We need to show them stuff, especially the puck support. It’s something that we’ve lost – especially in the second period – we’ve lost ourselves in a little bit of support. I thought they were dead on with it tonight. Some of the things we did offensively, other than making that last play and scoring a goal, I thought were really good. That’s the way we have to approach it.”
No coach likes to lose, but Tortorella does speak the truth. He continues to teach and lead by example this season for this young Flyers team. He is building a foundation to succeed at a high-level, and the start of that was building a new culture, instilling a new culture rather. Mission accomplished, coach.
