PHILADELPHIA — Ten years ago, John Tortorella was the head coach of the second-best team in the National Hockey League. That setup doesn't sound like one that naturally segues to a discussion of the Flyers, who are poised to be no better than the second-worst team in the National Hockey League. But Tortorella is going to be their coach, and no matter how bad the Flyers might be, they still have to play 82 times. They can't just cancel their season just because they traded three draft picks for Tony DeAngelo and didn't sign Johnny Gaudreau, as much as many of their fans would like them to.
So what will those 82 games look like? What kind of team will the Flyers be? (I'm talking about style here, not quality.) A look back at the 2010-13 New York Rangers actually can provide a decent insight. Under Tortorella, the Rangers reached the playoffs in each of those three consecutive seasons, and the middle season, '11-12, was their best during his tenure. They won 51 games, had 109 points, and reached the Eastern Conference finals, losing in six games to the New Jersey Devils.
What distinguished those Rangers teams was the manner in which they played, the approach that Tortorella relied on, and the demands that he made of his players. He is likely to employ a similar approach and make similar demands in his first season here, for different reasons, to different ends and results.
The benefits and costs of being tough
Tortorella's reputation as a hard-ass — from his seven years in Tampa with the Lightning, his four-plus years in New York, his one season with the Vancouver Canucks, and his six years in Columbus with the Blue Jackets — is well earned and preceded him to Philadelphia. But it's one thing to be a tough, edgy coach and another to have a team that reflects that toughness and edginess. Tortorella's Rangers clubs did.
In 2010-11, for instance, the Rangers led the NHL in hits, with 2,033, and were fourth in blocked shots, with 1,301. Though a high number of blocked shots can sometimes be an indication that a club isn't very good — if its players maintained possession of the puck more frequently, they wouldn't have to block so many shots — the Rangers did go 44-33-5 that season, and their proficiency in blocking shots was more a function of how Tortorella wanted them to play.
That was not a club loaded with offensive skill; no player on the roster scored more than 24 goals that season. New York had an inexperienced core and, in Henrik Lundqvist, a great goaltender, and Tortorella wasn't just trying to win in the here and now. He was trying to gird those youngsters for postseasons yet to come. So they would finish their checks, and they would throw their bodies in front of the puck to shield Lundqvist from as many scoring chances as they could and make his job as easy as possible, and woe to the player who wasn't willing to meet Tortorella's standards of physical sacrifice.
This philosophy was so entrenched — or Tortorella was so inflexible — that the Rangers maintained it the following season. They signed a big free agent in Brad Richards, brought up rookie Carl Hagelin, and relied more on defenseman Michael Del Zotto to move the puck. Plus, Marian Gaborik, who had missed 20 games in '10-11, played in all 82 in '11-12 and scored 41 goals. Still, despite that increase in offensive firepower, the Rangers' total numbers of hits (2,419) and blocked shots (1,338) increased, and their defense was terrific: They finished third in the league in goals against, and they allowed more than three goals just twice in their 20 playoff games.
This philosophy also had its costs. Tortorella gradually wore out his players with his tactics and demeanor. One example: In January 2012, a few days after a sluggish performance against the Pittsburgh Penguins, Tortorella stopped practice, pulled all his players off the ice, and admonished them to pick up their intensity. Here's the thing: They had won that Pittsburgh game. By the end of the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season — the Rangers ranked third in hits and fifth in blocked shots — those players had had enough. Tortorella was fired.
A coach with no choice
Two things are clear about the 2022-23 Flyers: 1) It's an understatement to say they're not going to be very good; and 2) Tortorella will coach them in much the same way he coached those Rangers teams. Back then, he had a choice. Now, he doesn't.
"We believe John Tortorella is going to help bring a harder-to-play-against mentality for our group, is going to improve our defensive structure and cut down on our goals against," general manager Chuck Fletcher said. "Frankly, it starts with that. That's why we made the moves we did to improve our defense core. With the coaching staff, it's going to be paramount to reduce our goals against dramatically and improve our penalty kills. We believe that we have enough skill up front to score goals."
Um, no. They do not have enough skill up front to score goals, which is all the more reason to think that Tortorella will double down on that defense-first, defense-second, defense-always approach. It's the only chance the Flyers have to be anything close to competitive. Four times during a news conference Wednesday, Fletcher suggested that, because of Tortorella and the marginal moves and changes they've made, the Flyers would be "harder to play against." Maybe that will be true. Maybe. This much is certain: They're going to be harder to watch.
