Photo Courtesy of, Emilee Chinn, Getty Images
Earlier last week the Philadelphia Flyers were in the midst of a 3 game losing streak. After a 5-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, Head Coach John Tortorella stated the following within a post game press conference,
“I’m not going to name names. I’m really really happy about how some guys, their effort tonight, and how they handled certain situations. But on the other side, there’s some situations that absolutely disgust me. Those are things we have to work through. When you’re building a team, you’re not only looking to build and grow your players. You’re also looking for players that you simply don’t think are going to be part of it. That separates itself as you go through all this process. So that’s part of our job.”
Since that specific quote was put forth by Tortorella the Flyers are now 2-0. The messaging from John Tortorella isn’t the sole reason the Flyers are finding success lately. However, his tactics seem to be having an effect on the way the Flyers are playing at the moment.
It’s evident that Tortorella is coaching these Flyers players to be the best they can be. Essentially, he’s looking for players to be at their best and put forth an honest effort while playing on a nightly basis. If players aren’t willing to do that then they may not be a part of the solution moving forward.
Tortorella’s main focus seems to be setting a standard for players on where he believes their level of play should be consistently. The important part in setting this standard is eventually having the coach step back and not needing that constant voice pointing out certain lackluster plays or inconsistencies within one’s game.
Tortorella’s goal with these types of tactics is to develop the mindset within his players that there is always a certain baseline level of play that needs to be met. No player is going to have their best game or be at their best for a full 82 game season. It’s a long season and expecting that is unattainable. What Tortorella is looking for though is self reflection from his players.
Ultimately, building this standard of play and culture of accountability is coupled with players eventually being able to look themselves in the mirror and recognize when they’ve had bad games or bad shifts. From there players can begin to understand when they need to return to that baseline level of play and standard Tortorella expects. Along with demanding more out of themselves.
Based on the last two wins the Flyers have put together which have arguably been their most complete games of the season so far, Flyers players are striving to be their best. Creating the culture and identity surrounding this team has been an integral aspect of Tortorella’s message so far this season. That goes hand in hand with the standard players need to be living up to and committing themselves to as Philadelphia Flyers.
As the season progresses it will be interesting to see if this mindset of a certain level of play needing to be met helps the 7-3-2 Flyers develop a sustainable winning formula. Although it’s only been 12 games, it is quite clear the impact challenging players has had on this team in a positive manner.
Gettin Gritty Wit It
On this week’s episode of the Gettin Gritty Wit It podcast we welcomed Jason Myrtetus to the show. You all know him from Flyers radio broadcasts, Flyers Daily, Stick 2 Hockey Live and much more.
It was a pleasure having Jason on the show and we got to have a great conversation about all things Flyers.
Here are some topics we discussed below:
-Recapping last 2 W’s
-Hart and Sandstrom’s play
-Dissecting Konency and Tippett’s play
-DeAngelo’s game
-Are Tortorella’s tactics building a sustainable formula?
Thanks for listening and for all of your continued support. Please like, subscribe and share!
Have a great week everyone!
