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“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 for the past few seasons. 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.
Believe it or not, Tortorella is just trying to get the young kids to become better pro’s, and even teach the vets to become better players. Yesterday, after a grueling bag skate, Tortorella gave us his vision of what he is trying to accomplish this season, “Year 1- Subtractions, Year 2- kids-developing kids, This year (Year 3)- The kids have to get better-no money for free agents.”
“This year (Year 3)- The kids have to get better-no money for free agents.” – John Tortorella said following bag skate
What isn’t brought up much is how much he cares about the players. Maybe it’s not a big story, maybe it’s not the big thing, but he really does care about these players. And that is evident after he was seen patting Morgan frost on the back after a few tough shifts into his return into the lineup. Tortorella is a smart guy, he sensed that Frost was trying to do too much and getting frustrated, so he came over and calmed him down. Believe it or not from that point on Frost was a much different player in a good way following that incident.
These are the small things that he does to prove that he has a soft side to his personality. A personality that protects his locker room, while he shoulders the blame. Yesterday, Tortorella even took the blame for how last season with blaming himself for the team missing the playoffs, with collapsing down the stretch. He did admit that the lack of scoring was a key factor, but he said he didn’t place his team in the best situations to win.
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Tortorella and the players, equally deserved blame, for the monumental collapse that ensued last season. It wasn’t just one person, it was all. Torts didn’t lose the room, especially when the effort was there like it was against the Buffalo Sabres. He did a great job with commanding effort from his team all last season.
The team gave effort, that doesn’t correlate with the narrative that he lost the locker room. If he lost the locker room, then the team wouldn’t give effort. That was just a pure collapse, and in the grand scheme of things the team wasn’t supposed to be this good at this stage of the rebuild.
They have to learn how to finish, that is what they have to learn to this season.
