John Tortorella, In So Many Words, Says That The Flyers Are Pathetic And Not Worth His Time Anymore
Dave Reginek. Getty Images.The Philadelphia Flyers men's professional ice hockey team is what we in the biz would call "absolute dog shit". This team has lost 10 out of their last 11 games, and their only win in that stretch has come in a shootout against Tampa. They've given up 17 goals in their last 3 games. They currently sit in 2nd to last place in the Metro Division, and 28th place overall in the league.
All of this is according to plan. The Flyers need to acquire high end talent to build around, and the only real way you can do that is through the draft. Elite players rarely ever hit the open market anymore. Even if you want to trade for an elite player, you at least need a few good players on your roster to trade for them. The Flyers have one star player on their roster with Matvei Michkov, and they desperately need to bring more into the organization quick. So they punted on this season by trading away guys like Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost, and Scott Laughton.
This team sucks. They are supposed to suck. And John Tortorella isn't even trying to fight it anymore.
Those are a lot of different words being used here when Torts really just meant to say, "fuck this team".
I think what we heard out of Torts last night is a guy who knows that his time behind the bench in Philadelphia is done. Which is a good thing for both sides. He got a little taste of what it's like coaching great players again with Team USA at the 4 Nations Faceoff, and he realized he can't do it anymore in Philadelphia. At the same time, the Flyers need a new, young coach in the building who is willing to actually go through some growing pains with the Flyers as they get their roster right.
Torts only wanted to squeeze the most out of these guys as he could possibly get, which was going to be a 19th place finish at best. That leaves the Flyers trapped in mediocrity for another 5+ years. But if you bring in a guy like a David Carle, take one more good run at Gavin McKenna next year, and now he has at least 3-4 really good pieces to work with? Now this organization is going somewhere.