From the start of the Philadelphia Flyers’ season, 2022-23 has been about giving unproven young players an opportunity to develop their skills in new, elevated roles, and see if they have what it takes to thrive there.
John Tortorella apparently wants to extend that courtesy to his coaching staff, as well. They’re younger than him, at least.
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Starting in Ottawa against the Senators on Thursday and then also on Saturday back home against the Buffalo Sabres, Tortorella was not in his usual spot behind the Philadelphia bench during the game. He wasn’t sick, suspended, or on a surprise vacation. It was a voluntary decision on his part, meant to give his assistants a chance to run the bench as the “head” coach.
Long a preseason tactic for Tortorella, he made the call to extend it to regular season action with the Flyers out of playoff contention.
“I think I have (a) responsibility to my coaching staff, (to) help them develop,” he explained on Saturday morning. “I think we’re all trying to develop, just like the players are, I think, in these type of situations.”
Normally, Brad Shaw’s gameday duties are limited to managing the defensemen and the team’s penalty kill. But he served as Philadelphia’s de facto head coach on Thursday and Saturday, with Rocky Thompson (forwards, power play) expected to also lead the bench for “a couple” games and Darryl Williams (pre-scouting and assorted other duties) will get one game as well.
“Yeah, I was surprised in Ottawa,” Scott Laughton admitted, noting that he found out Thursday morning that Tortorella would be temporarily relinquishing his headman duties that night. “I think it’s good for our group, and probably good for Torts to go up there and see the game from a different angle and see what’s going on. But yeah, definitely weird, I’ve never experienced that either, but something that we’re going with.”
Against the Senators, Tortorella certainly did watch the game from “up there” — sitting alongside interim GM Daniel Briere in the general manager’s box for the entirety of the game. And that could certainly help to further explain the unorthodox move. After all, Tortorella has been open about how he expects this summer to be an offseason of “subtraction,” as decisions are made on which players will be part of Philadelphia’s rebuild moving forward.
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Two days later, Tortorella contended that his decision to pass the baton to his assistants wasn’t about getting more face time with the GM and having a few in-game conversations with him over the future of the Flyers’ roster.
But it was certainly an “unexpected” positive benefit, he admitted.
“The biggest thing, and it just worked out that way, it was really good for Danny and I,” he acknowledged. “Because we got to converse about style of play, what’s going on in 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.”
But even with Briere away on a trip Saturday, Tortorella handed the reins to Shaw once again. And this time, he wasn’t up in the press box, instead catching the game on television in the Flyers’ locker room at the Wells Fargo Center.
Far better there than in “Answer Alley,” as he derisively dubbed the press box perspective.
“It sucks up there. I didn’t learn a thing up there. That is Answer Alley, because everybody has the answer up there, because (the game looks) so slow,” he cracked.
Regardless of locale, however, neither Thursday nor Saturday was an especially satisfying viewing experience for Tortorella. In Ottawa, the Flyers did storm back in the third period to erase a 4-1 deficit before falling in OT — but they were also outshot by a whopping 46-11 margin. Against Buffalo, a mostly-impressive first period was rendered irrelevant after Philadelphia allowed three goals in a 2:21 span, costing them any realistic chance of a victory.
Tough to watch those kinds of losses from afar, John?
“No, I can’t stand it. But I want to do it this way,” he reiterated. “I think it’s important for (the coaches). I think I owe it to them. But it sucks watching.”
Important for Shaw, for example, who hadn’t led an NHL bench in 17 years, since he took over for the fired Steve Sterling back in 2005-06 when coaching for the New York Islanders. Now, he’s getting another shot — not quite as an NHL head coach, but at least being entrusted with running the bench for a few games.
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Shaw’s message isn’t that dissimilar to that of Torts — after all, he’s on Tortorella’s coaching staff for a reason. The delivery, however, is unsurprisingly different coming from the calmer and more urbane Shaw.
“Torts is probably a little bit more intense — I don’t know how to explain it, maybe not more intense but yeah, he’ll give it to you a little bit more if something happens,” Laughton noted.
“Yeah, I think I say things differently than him,” Shaw agreed on Saturday. “We’re kind of pointed in the same direction, but I might get there (on) a little different path and use different words than he would, and maybe in just a different tone.”
That said, it’s still John Tortorella’s team. He was in the coaches’ room in between periods on Saturday to strategize with Shaw and the rest of the coaches, and according to Laughton, Torts has still been present in team meetings on days when he’s handed the head coach job to Shaw, though Shaw runs the show. Tortorella isn’t taking his hand off the till entirely, both functionally and spiritually.
“You don’t really feel like you’re the head guy — you are running the bench — but you always know that Torts’ philosophy and his overriding ideas are what’s driving where we’re driving to anyway,” Shaw explained. “So, I don’t think it really changes too much as far as maybe the messaging.”
After two nights watching from afar, Tortorella was back behind the Flyers’ bench on Sunday against the Pittsburgh Penguins. It was never meant to be permanent, he confirmed, and it’s not an experiment he would have undertaken had the Flyers been in the midst of a playoff race with a few weeks left in the season.
But it does give his coaches a chance to learn on the job. Tortorella, after all, is 64 years old and won’t be coaching forever; he’s already intimated that this is likely to be his last head coaching position in the NHL, regardless of how his tenure in Philadelphia ultimately plays out. Might he be trying to set up one of his understudies — his longtime assistant Shaw (58 years old), first-year Flyers assistant Thompson (45) or hockey lifer Williams (55) — as either his successor or at least as a viable candidate for a head coaching position elsewhere?
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“They work their ass off, the amount of work they do for the team and for me,” Tortorella said. “If I have an opportunity, where it doesn’t affect anything to give them a chance to develop, I’m going to do that.”
And, of course, there’s the obvious benefit for Tortorella of getting to watch his team alongside Briere, who is heavily favored to be named the permanent GM at some point over the next few weeks or months.
“The biggest plus that came out of it — at least for me, and I believe for Danny — was that, that we got in a room (with) no one else around,” Tortorella reaffirmed. “Game going on, watching our players play and talk about where we’re going with the process. So I hope we get another opportunity to do that.”
With only six games remaining and at least three reserved for his assistants to run the Philadelphia bench, there will be ample opportunities for more Tortorella-Briere conversations from up top. And at least a couple more chances for the Flyers players — both young and old — to get a bit of an early Torts break at the tail end of a long season.
But not too much of one.
“I am (sick of hearing my voice), I am, and I’m sure they are too,” Tortorella said with a smirk on Sunday. “But they’re gonna hear me tonight.”
(Photo: Bill Wippert / NHLI via Getty Images)
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