This Christmas we are thankful for awesome quotes by Flyers’ Head Coach John Tortorella

Photo Credit: NHL.com

Today is Christmas, Merry Christmas if you celebrate that holiday. And with that it’s time to give some thanks to Flyers Head Coach John Tortorella. Just saying thanks for his honesty, wonderful quotes, and these little things he does candidly really resonates with the City of Philadelphia. It’s a breath of fresh air in Flyer land, although the orange and black haven’t been getting the results on ice recently.

“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.” – John Tortorella

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. He’s trying to change the culture, and that will not happen overnight. 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. He ran a tough camp once again, and made the Flyers tougher in the process. He runs a rigorous tough camp to test players mentally, that’s mainly what the skating portion of camp is. They are seeing the results on the ice this season, and this young Flyers team gives a ton of effort. The orange and black have become a watchable, fun hockey team in the process.

Flyers’ Head Coach Tortorella coached his 1,400th NHL game last season. This is one heck of a feat, even with the loss to the Boston Bruins he should be recognized. Tortorella has given people some nice quotes recently, most notably, “We suck…we haven’t done anything right yet,” to “You can do the s*** out of us, I don’t give a s..t what people think about effort.”

Effort and hustling was a major focus again during Training Camp, hence the reason why Tortorella conditioned and skated the team a lot during those sessions. He was preparing them for what was to come and that is never giving up, just give your all. His team may not be the most talented, but they are well conditioned to give 100% effort night after night. And people just have to except that for who they are.

“We win this game because we got balls. We do. We do stupid stuff at times, we lose sight of certain momentums of the game. One thing we do have is balls.” – John Tortorella

We are thankful for John Tortorella’s infamous quotes. Time and time again he gives great quotes.

“Don’t even start to ask me those questions. We are in the end of December,” John Tortorella said last week in regards to the Playoffs.

Thank you John Tortorella for the great quotes. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.