When John Tortorella was hired this summer, I don’t think many people expected him to take on the role that he has assumed by season’s end.
We knew he was going to have some sort of sway into the makeup of the team and that he’d be extremely vocal and open with the front office and the fan base, but as the season moved along it became more and more clear that he was essentially the face of the organization.
Once Chuck Fletcher got the boot from both of his positions and Daniel Brière was named the interim general manager, part of the reason behind those moves was to give Tortorella even more say.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman dissected the Philadelphia Flyers on his 32 Thoughts podcast with Jeff Marek and they both echoed the same thing, that the organization not only valued his efforts but they could physically see that he was one of the only things working for the team. He was vocal all season long about the path the Flyers were going to take under his tutelage behind the bench, about what the future would look like 1-2-3 years from now, and that patience would be required as he attempted to steer the team back to relevance.
Dave Scott and Chuck Fletcher became a blast from the past as they essentially disappeared into the abyss as Tortorella took all the attention away from them. He shielded every aspect of the organization that was crumbling, and he did it admirably. He tried to be as open as possible with the frustrated fan base and penned a letter, asking for patience and time as his system and plan is finally taking shape.
Almost immediately after Fletcher was fired, Tortorella had a one-on-one meeting with his new general manager, where they primarily discussed the roster and player personnel. That has only rolled into a bigger snowball – one to make a snowman, not one to create an avalanche – as he has sat in the press box and locker room, while allowing assistant coach Brad Shaw get some much needed experience.
Perhaps overshadowed by MLB’s Opening Day schedule, the Flyers came off their 5-1-1 homestand and headed north for the final time to play against the Ottawa Senators. Tortorella was not present behind the bench and it was later revealed that he was sitting side-by-side with Daniel Brière. The Flyers got heavily outplayed, the likes that we haven’t seen a Tortorella-led team play in recent weeks, but somehow managed an overtime point.
The same thing happened the following game against Buffalo but with Brière traveling elsewhere, Tortorella watched from the locker room instead. He did make his return behind the bench in their last game against Pittsburgh.
“It sucks up there, I didn’t learn a thing up there,” said Tortorella. That is answer alley because everybody has the answer up there because it’s so slow.
“I just think it gives them a chance to develop and see the bench at that spectrum. I think it’s my responsibility.
“It was really good for Danny and I because we got to converse. We got to converse about style of play, what’s going on with certain plays. We got to converse on personnel. It’s the most him and I were able to sit down and talk about the future of the team. We did some evaluating,” said the head coach about his time with Brière upstairs. “It gave me and my general manager [an opportunity] to talk about that specific player on that specific play. And maybe one of the conversations was, ‘Yeah, it’s a habit of his, we’re trying to get him out of it.’ Those are the type of conversations and evaluations we had. Especially with me sitting next to my general manager, I thought it was really healthy for him and I.”
That in it of itself is a telling sign because it was widely reported in the summer that Tortorella was not Fletcher’s target, and I think that was because Tortorella’s plan didn’t mesh with his own. They never seemed to agree on the path that this team was going to take, they butted heads without actually butting heads with their poignant buzzwords as Tortorella liked using rebuilding terms, while Fletcher was still looking for the quick fix. The head coach kept mentioning how this team had no top-end talent, that scoring goals was going to be a problem with the team being bereft of goal-scorers, and how they need to find better players – all of which were subtly pointed towards the suspect moves made by the general manager.
We figured out soon enough that he loved Noah Cates, he started to give Owen Tippett all the ice time he wanted, he rewarded Morgan Frost for his 180-degree change, Cam York got stapled into the top pair, Rasmus Ristolainen and Nick Seeler were applauded for their defensive efforts, and how he handled Tyson Foerster, Samuel Ersson, and Carter Hart was not lost on us either.
On the other hand, he has been harsh but fair with his struggling players and has made comments on Tanner Laczynski, Wade Allison, Kevin Hayes, Tony DeAngelo, Joel Farabee, and Kieffer Bellows.
He has benched players like Tippett, Frost, Hayes, Konecny, Farabee, and Travis Sanheim, he has scratched players like Frost, Sanheim, and Hayes, and isn’t afraid to let the world know why. Sometimes when Alain Vigneault made a similar move, it was as if he was trying to brush it under the rug as if no one was going to notice. Tortorella doesn’t sugarcoat anything for a team that needs accountability and leadership like fish need water.
It took some time for his system to take shape but what we saw in and around the New Year and heading into January was a Flyers team finally showing effort and heart. They were not only winning games, but they were showing effort, determination, and fight, and that’s what opposing teams have said all season about the Flyers; they’re scrappy, it’s not going to be easy, and they work from start to finish. Which, as we remember from his pressers in the summer, was exactly what he was trying to turn this team into: hard to play against.
Give this head coach some legitimate talented players and we will see more results like their recent homestand than the 10-game losing streak from November.
A very important part of that earlier quote was how he mentioned that he chatted with Brière about the players and how “we did some evaluating. It gave me and my general manager [an opportunity] to talk about that specific player on that specific play. And maybe one of the conversations was, ‘Yeah, it’s a habit of his, we’re trying to get him out of it.’ Those are the type of conversations and evaluations we had. Especially with me sitting next to my general manager, I thought it was really healthy for him and I.”
We know that Kevin Hayes’ ice time has dropped over time as has his overall play, James van Riemsdyk probably won’t be coming back, the jury’s still out on depth players like Wade Allison, Tanner Laczynski, and Kieffer Bellows, and quite honestly I don’t think anyone has a clue on what is going to be done with Travis Konecny and Ivan Provorov – both very important players for the team right now but would also bring back the best assets to jumpstart a rebuild. Brière has intimated that he’s not going to go into this like a bull in a china shop and just tear down every pillar, which might keep both players around if they fit Tortorella’s scheme.
The team is locked in to several long-term contracts – some untradable at the moment – but changes are afoot and we’ve seen how he has embraced the youth movement with Cates, Frost, Tippett, Farabee, York, and Foerster getting big minutes and long runs. He has also hinted at several call-ups from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, first with Elliot Desnoyers, then with Foerster, followed by Egor Zamula, and now once more with Ronnie Attard.
He’s got his fingerprints on a lot of moves, he will have his voice heard over the summer, and even though it’s an old-school move for the head coach to have sway in roster moves, it might be the best thing for the Flyers in the long run.
The general manager and coach seem to be on the same page and as they work together on the betterment of this franchise, we should be somewhat grateful that we have a can-do head coach who actually has a plan in motion with a general manager that wants to modernize their approach and liken themselves to the successful Colorado Avalanche and Boston Bruins.
Tortorella could make way again for Brad Shaw and will make way for Rocky Thompson with only 6 games remaining on the season, but that has nothing to do with his role diminishing as it gives Shaw – a longtime Tortorella assistant – and Thompson more and more experience for the future.
