John Tortorella has a lot of redeeming qualities, including
the fact he develops a culture with his hard-driving, old-school style.
But he was the wrong fit for the Philadelphia Flyers, who
dismissed the 66-year-old coach Thursday toward the end of another
disappointing season.
The Flyers are still a bad team, but maybe the players will
develop quicker without the fear of being benched if they make a mistake. That
was a Tortorella trademark, and it didn’t seem to sit well with the players or
management.
A young, rebuilding team like the Flyers needs someone who
can nurture players, get the most out of their potential.
That wasn’t a strength – or the MO – of the no-nonsense
Tortorella.
In three years under Tortorella, the Flyers went 97-107-33
and missed the playoffs each year. The team overachieved for most of last
season, then collapsed near the end, losing eight straight and blowing a
playoff spot.
Despite the addition of wunderkind Matvei Michkov, the team
has regressed greatly this season. The Flyers are 28-36-9, have lost 11 of
their last 12 and have the NHL’s fourth-worst winning percentage.
The Flyers will miss the playoffs for a fifth straight
season, matching the worst span in franchise history.
Biggest Issue
Worse, the younger players – other than Michkov and Noah
Cates – didn’t develop.
Former first-round picks Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost
were traded because of their struggles.
Promising defensemen Cam York, who made
a gaffe in Tuesday’s 7-2 loss in Toronto and was subsequently benched the rest
of the game, and Jamie Drysdale have been extremely inconsistent.
Right winger Owen
Tippett, a team cornerstone at 26, has taken a step backward. The goalies and
the defense have been abysmal. Ditto the overall offense.
Tortorella sounded like he had packed in the season after
Tuesday’s shellacking in Toronto.
“I’m not really interested in learning how to coach in this
type of season,” he told reporters.
Maybe he meant he just hates coaching when there is nothing
at stake, which is understandable. But it came across as a man who was fed up
and had thrown in the towel on the season. Not a good look for the team’s leader.
Two days later, he was fired and replaced by interim coach
Brad Shaw.
Yes, Tortorella won a Cup in Tampa Bay ages ago, but his teams have not been in the post-season in six of the last 10
years. Including time in Vancouver and Columbus, he has gotten past Round 1
once in the last 10 years. Those aren't great results.
Dismal Times
Flyers GM Danny Briere said all the obligatory things
after Tortorella was dismissed. He called it a “very difficult decision,”
saying Tortorella played a “vital role” in the rebuild and “set the standard of
play and re-established what it means to be a Philadelphia Flyer.”
From here, it means missing the playoffs, not having a true
No. 1 or No. 2 center, watching too many young players regress and again
searching for the dependable goalie.
Other than that, the Flyers resemble the franchise’s 1973-74
and 1974-75 Stanley Cup champs.
That’s not a slap at the current team. They try hard. They
rarely get outworked. But they just don’t have the talent to compete.
Now the attention is focused on Briere, who needs to be
active in the trade and free-agent markets, and do well in the draft. He has
seven picks in the first two rounds in June. With the way some of those
previous top choices have panned out (with other GMs in charge), maybe it’s
time to deal some of those picks for established players?
Tortorella is gone, but the other problems – a lack of
talent at key positions, failure to develop promising prospects – haven't gone
away.
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