Photo Credit: NHL.com
The wheels started to fall off the bus with Tony DeAngelo and Flyers’ Head Coach John Tortorella after a benching. DeAngelo’s play, combined with being embattled with Tortorella were just two reasons DeAngelo was bought out by the Flyers. For this matter, the orange and black will be on the hook for $1.66 million for the next two seasons.
Over a quarter way into the season with DeAngelo’s bad habits of being out of position, or always looking to engage offensively, led to many odd man rushes the other way. This made the Flyers that much easier to beat with giving more space for their opponents to create, thus being out of position 9 times out of 10 for a goal against.
DeAngelo was deservedly bought out by the Flyers. Some people expected more from DeAngelo, so he left a cup half full. The Flyers had a second buyout window open with Noah Cates filing for arbitration, so in the end, this lead to a divorce after just one season in Philly.
Danny Briere is fixing Chuck Fletcher’s mistakes, now let’s see what he can do moving forward. Hopefully soon fans can look forward to seeing him put his stamp on this roster.
What John Tortorella does well is hold players accountable, but DeAngelo must have been at least one player that Associate Head Coach Rocky Thompson was talking about near the end of the season for this relationship to sour this way, “I just told them it’s not about X’s and O’s, I said quite frankly it looks like some guys don’t even care. They’re just not trying. I wasn’t going to call anybody out individually, but your teammates know. I told them I’d give them another chance if you’re going to do it, I’ll keep you in, if not I’ll take you out,” Thompson said.
Today, the Tony DeAngelo Era has ended in Philly, now it’s time to move forward. What happens next is anyone’s guess.
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