For those of you who only read the headlines, you may have a sense of concern for how John Tortorella’s style is going to affect this Flyers team. He’s deemed over the top, seen as too intense, and looked at as a loose cannon. However, if you take the time to listen to his press conference and study how his past teams have reacted to him or what his former players have said about him, you may be in the same boat as me, extremely excited. John does everything for his players. In his opening presser Chuck Fletcher said, “Ultimately, players will respond if they know you’re demanding, but you’re demanding in a sense that you care about them. You want what’s best for them. You’re not being demanding for yourself, you’re being demanding to make the player better, to make the team better. And nobody personifies that more than John Tortorella.”
The Flyers have needed a passionate and demanding coach who understands Philadelphia for a long time now. When asked what brought him to Philly, Tortorella said something that resonates with all Flyers fans, “It’s the Philadelphia Flyers, that’s all I need to say.”
Many people haven’t seen the real Philadelphia Flyers for quite some time now. The Flyers teams that played with pride and competed each and every night seem like a distant memory. They don’t look like they are having fun out there anymore. A few years ago it did not matter how much we went down in a game or how much time was left because the Flyers showed effort for 60 minutes each night. That alone always gave us a chance no matter who we were playing. Many of us fans can accept defeat if the other teams are better than us, but what we will never accept is the lack of heart we have seen from this team in recent years. It seems as if the last time they were the PHILADELPHIA Flyers that we all know and love was the 2012 playoffs against the Penguins. A team that had Craig Berube and Peter Laviolette behind the bench. A team that competed for one another. A team that had fun and played with pride each and every night. There has not been a team that competed day in and day out consistently for multiple years now. So what has changed? You can blame it on the league getting younger, refs cracking down on penalties, or even make an excuse that the roster we currently have isn’t suited for a playoff run. If you choose the roster excuse, think about who was on the team in 2012. Was Eric Wellwood, Max Talbot and Zac Rinaldo that much better of a 4th line than the 4th line guys of recent years like Michael Raffl, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Tyler Pitlick, Oskar Lindblom or Zac MacEwen? Claude Giroux may no longer be a Flyer, but was Scott Hartnell, Giroux, and Jakob Voracek a better first line than Joel Farabee, Giroux and Travis Konecny? The competitive edge and lack of accountability is the main difference between the new Flyers culture and the old one. If Sean Couturier received a cheap shot from an opposing player in 2022 what would have happened? I’ll tell you what happened in 2012, the Flyers coaching staff had to use all their strength to hold back Wayne Simmonds and Zac Rinaldo from hopping over the bench. They had to sit Scott Hartnell and Brayden Schenn so that they wouldn’t go after a certain Penguins player (We all know how that turned out). These four players didn’t become fan favorites because they got in meaningless fights or because they were 50 goal scorers. They became fan favorites because they gave it their absolute all, day in and day out, despite the record of the team or the score of the game. They understood the true definition of what it meant to be a Philadelphia Flyer and they showed that to all of us.
John Tortorella is the first coach that we’ve seen understand the lack of culture in this organization in a long time. Without a voice and proper structure behind them the Flyers have seemed lost. We’ve seen flashes of excellence over the last few years but no consistency. That is what John Tortorella is going to bring. He’s going to bring back the culture to this organization that we are so desperately in need of. The league has changed drastically over recent years and Tortorella acknowledged that in the press conference. He held himself accountable for mistakes he’s made and understands where he went wrong before. It looked like a much calmer version of the John Tortorella of the past, but one that shared the same values as his old self. One of the most impactful things Tortorella said during his presser was, “I don’t know what I enjoy most, trying to develop the hockey player or trying to develop the person.” In order to develop the person Tortorella is going to need to demand more and more from his players each day. John said, “If we want to get to growing and who we want to be, that organization that people look at as a standard, then yeah, the culture has to change. Culture. Accountability.” As a fan, this shows us that Tortorella is going to work each and every day to make this team better no matter the cost. Tortorella doesn’t care if you are the team leader in points or in dead last, you will be held accountable for the little things. A Flyers team that lays it all on the ice, blocks shots, gets to the dirty areas, and shows emotion is a team that all of us will be able to get behind regardless of their record. The question all Flyers fans should be asking themselves is not if the Flyers will get better because with Tortorella behind the bench that is no longer a concern. Fans should start asking themselves how quickly?
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Tortorella is going to have a profound effect on this team and this organization. The players are going to benefit from his new style individually and as a group. As the summer moves along and John Tortorella puts his off-season plan in place after meeting with the players, it will be interesting to see the effect it has on the team come September. Will they already look like a whole new team? Or will their progress be slow and take some time out of the gates before we see them get going? There is no clear answer to those questions now but Flyers fans everywhere should be excited for the transformation of this team to begin.
