Photo Courtesy of Jerome Miron, USA TODAY Sports
On Friday, June 17th the Philadelphia Flyers finally ended the search to fill their vacant head coach position. That coaching search has resulted in former Stanley Cup winner John Tortorella being named the 23rd Head Coach in franchise history.
Tortorella was signed to a 4 year contract for a total of 16 million dollars and will be receiving 4 million dollars per year moving forward as the Flyers new Head Coach. Essentially, signing Tortorella will be a positive for the Flyers in a variety of facets. After the last two abysmal seasons it’s quite clear the Flyers lack structure, an identity as a team and have been easy to play against.
With Tortorella all of that will likely change for the better. As he is a coach that demands his teams play with structure and a defensive foundation that can be relied upon. There’s no doubt that such a defensive style will be implemented to not only give Carter Hart some much needed defensive support. While also attempting to reduce the Flyers overall goals against totals from last season, which were abysmal.
Most importantly what Tortorella will emphasize with the Flyers roster moving forward is a level of accountability this team has not necessarily been accustomed to. Such accountability in players’ games is something sorely needed in order for the Flyers to gain some more structure as a whole. The way Tortorella coaches he uses conflict as a tool in a lot of different ways. Holding players accountable for their mistakes and actions on the ice will be one of them. The importance of that is vital. No matter the player, their skill level, or how much they are paid, no one individual player should be above the team and system attempting to be executed. Holding players accountable for their mistakes to a level this Flyers locker room has likely not seen before will be a welcome change that should have a positive effect on the culture of the Philadelphia Flyers moving forward.
It will also be very intriguing to see how Tortorella’s coaching style affects the younger players within the organization. Tortorella stated in his press conference on Friday that, “My job is to push athletes to levels they aren’t used to getting to. And I’m going to do that.” Such a philosophy should be conducive to getting the most out of younger players who are looking to make a mark as full time impactful NHL contributors. In certain cases being challenged like Tortorella will do with a variety of different players on the roster should allow for growth of these players’ games in order for them to become more complete hockey players. Ultimately, it remains to be seen if Tortorella does indeed positively impact the roster though we’ll get a better idea of that as we get closer to training camp and the upcoming regular season.
Gettin Gritty Wit It : Episode 112
On this week’s episode of the Gettin Gritty Wit It podcast we were joined by Russ Cohen from Off The Post Radio and sportsology.com. We discussed several different topics and focused on the John Tortorella hiring, as well as, the upcoming NHL Entry Draft. Here are all the topics we got into below:
- John Tortorella hired. What does it mean for the Flyers going forward?
- What players will Tortorella get the best out of?
- JVR trade rumors and other potential off season moves/signings
- NHL Draft talk and rankings
- Playoff talk
Thank you for listening and have a great week everyone.
It will be very interesting to see what the new coach can do with the team. Not all of the Flyers tragic mistakes were made on the ice these past few years. Tortz is left with a grab bag of talent that has recently been depleted by our GM. We have in many cases just given away some of our most dynamic players with little in return. The defensive system is going to have to be a top priority since most of our prolific scorers are sitting at the top of other team’s score sheets. The new coach is a great start but he sure does have a gigantic challenge in front of him. The current condition of the franchise seems to be exactly what they were shooting for. Any player who did not seem satisfied with the steady decline was removed from the mix. I bleed orange and black but something has to be done to stop the bleeding. It is an emergency.