Flyers head coach John Tortorella has never been shy about saying what he's thinking. He can also be strategic at times, making sure those around him are not talking about the players, but instead focusing on him. It's worked more than once, especially after his most recent comments.
The Flyers are in a bad way right now. With only nine games left in the season, it's more about making it to that final game than anything at this point. They gave up seven goals on Tuesday after allowing seven on Sunday. They are 1-10-1 in their last 12 games and have been outscored 52-21 in those games.
But that's not what anyone is talking about right now. They aren't focused on the Flyers being one point away from last in the Eastern Conference. They aren't talking about the team missing the playoffs yet again. Instead, the focus is on what Tortorella said in a barely one-minute interview after a rout at the hands of the Leafs.
John Tortorella's comments show nothing more than a frustrated coach
"When you're in this type of situation and you're losing all the time, and there's nothing at the end of the tunnel for you, there's certainly going to be some frustration. But this falls on me. I'm not really interested in learning how to coach in this type of season, where we're at right now. But I have to do a better job. So this falls on me, getting the team prepared to play the proper way until we get to the end." Tortorella said postgame.
All anyone has been able to focus on is that third sentence. But everyone may have been taking it out of context with the rest of the quote. And Tortorella makes a fair point. Who is interested in coaching a team that is getting demolished every night? That's not going to be fun for anyone, the players and coaches included. By the sound of it, it's also possible he meant that by coaching better, this team would not be in this situation every game.
It's fair to argue that Tortorella knew what he was signing up for when he took the job as head coach. This was not going to be an easy fix, and he admitted as such. It was going to take time, and each year had a different meaning behind it regarding what the solutions would be.
The first year was more addition by subtraction. The Flyers traded away or released those they felt were not assets to what they were building. After that, it was focusing on younger players taking another step forward and continuing to learn which could be part of their new core. This year has been more of the same, as there weren't many changes to the roster heading into the season.
Getting Matvei Michkov ahead of schedule made some believe that the Flyers' timeline would speed up. But many failed to understand that this was still an inexperienced group that had holes up and down the lineup. Things got worse after the trade deadline when the team was easily worse than when they started the season.
So this recent stretch of games should not be a surprise to those who have truly been paying attention. And deep down, Tortorella knows that things aren't going to magically get better by the end of the season. With expectations slightly higher than they should've been after barely missing the playoffs last year, there was an unfair belief that this team could be even better.
And most of us are guilty with that thinking. Getting caught up in the direction this team was headed and having Michkov join much earlier, things looked like they were trending up. But this team wasn't magically going to be different when bringing back largely the same group.
You hoped they would take some kind of step forward. And there have been times when the Flyers have been able to hang with the best in the league. But whether it's the struggles in net, the abysmal power play, or players underperforming, this team is not yet close to being a contender in this league.
So it's no surprise that Tortorella is showing frustration with how the end of the season is going. There is hardly anything to play for, nothing more than pride and trying to end things on a high note. It can be hard to go out there each and every night expecting things to be different. And he did take the blame away from the team. He's never been one to throw the group under the bus.
Could this be a sign of a move at the end of the season? It's possible, but general manager Danny Briere has put his faith in Tortorella more than once as this team's head coach. So until the end of the contract, there's no reason to believe that Tortorella won't continue to be behind the bench.
He's just as frustrated as everyone else. But there shouldn't be anything more to his comments than that.