For a man who’s known not to mince words, John Tortorella has been hitting his personal mute button with unusual frequency lately.
Now that Barry Trotz is over on the management side in Nashville, the often-blunt, sometimes-messy Tortorella is currently the most decorated active NHL coach, with two Jack Adams Awards to his name.
This year, the Philadelphia Flyers are in the hunt for a playoff berth despite a commitment to rebuilding and keeping an eye on long-term goals. So once again, Tortorella is back in the coach of the year conversation.
But at age 65, has his old-school approach ultimately helped or hurt his team as the going gets tough?
In mid-March, he refused to explain his reasoning for healthy-scratching Sean Couturier for two games, barely a month after Couturier was named the Flyers’ new captain. A week later, he was apologizing for a non-response to a question about the play of goaltender Felix Sandstrom — who didn’t get the ice again before being re-assigned to the AHL.
And after Monday’s overtime loss to the New York Islanders stretched the Flyers’ current losing streak to 0-3-2 and made their grip on a playoff spot more tenuous than ever, Tortorella had praise only for new arrival Ivan Fedotov and called the rest of his group “soft.”
“One guy played, the goalie.”
Torts loved Fedotov’s debut, the rest of the Flyers performance…not so much. pic.twitter.com/S9JO10vv4W
— Spittin' Chiclets (@spittinchiclets) April 2, 2024
On Wednesday, he tried to explain his thinking in a press availability that was widely praised on social media.
“I’m trying to push athletes,” he said. “I was in control the other night. What I said, I meant.”
“I’m so proud of the team getting here,” he added. “I guess now the narrative is, because I’ve heard from other people, ‘They’re young. They’re not supposed to be here.’ Bulls—. We’re here. Face it.
“And let’s be better. And I don’t think we’re ready to be better, and that’s my problem with us right now. And it is my job. I have not done a good enough job to get ‘em over the hump… I haven’t done a good enough job to make them understand ‘We have to be different now. We have to be at a different level.’
“That’s my frustration with me, and that’s my frustration with the team.”
John Tortorella delivered an impassioned @NHLFlyers press conference today, explaining his coaching philosophies and interactions with players.
A must-watch 90-seconds 🍿 pic.twitter.com/8mvhOVvLBu
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) April 3, 2024
Tortorella deserves credit for making himself accountable. He also deserves credit for delivering the Flyers’ best points percentage in four seasons, especially considering the abrupt mid-season departure of his starting goalie.
But the Couturier and Sandstrom distractions rest squarely on his shoulders. And so does the two-game suspension that he was assessed after he refused to leave the bench when he was thrown out of Philadelphia’s 7-0 loss to Tampa Bay on March 9.
John Tortorella is livid after getting ejected from the game…#Flyers pic.twitter.com/Xd6n9yYypt
— Flyers Nation (@FlyersNation) March 10, 2024
At that point, the Flyers could have used strong leadership behind the bench. After a 29-19-6 start to the season, they were already starting to wane, having gone 4-5-1 in the 10 games before the suspension.
Now, they’re 3-6-3 since the trade deadline, for a .375 points percentage. At the most important time of year, they’ve faltered — and Tortorella is saying that some culpability lies with him.
Just after the deadline, a poll of NHL.com writers ranked Tortorella second in this year’s Jack Adams race, behind Rick Tocchet in Vancouver and just ahead of Paul Maurice in Florida, Kris Knoblauch in Edmonton and Rick Bowness in Winnipeg.
But since March 8, a completely different group of teams has dominated in the win/loss column.
Here are the top five, through Thursday’s games, by points percentage:
- Jon Cooper – Tampa Bay Lightning: 10-1-1, .875
- Peter DeBoer – Dallas Stars: 10-2-0, .833
- Bruce Cassidy – Vegas Golden Knights: 9-2-1, .792
- Jared Bednar – Colorado Avalanche: 9-2-1, .792
- Peter Laviolette – New York Rangers: 11-3-0, .786
Of those five coaches, only Cassidy has won the Jack Adams before — when he was with Boston in 2020.
The members of the NHL Broadcasters’ Association vote for the award. They tend to favor coaches in new environments who have engineered big turnarounds for their teams.
But isn’t this a year where Jon Cooper deserves serious consideration?
The league’s longest-tenured coach, Cooper has been behind the Tampa Bay bench since 2013. With their surge since the deadline, the Lightning are on track to clinch their 10th playoff berth in Cooper’s 12 years behind the bench — a run that includes two Stanley Cups, two additional appearances in the final, and two trips to the Eastern Conference final.
That’s a lot of playoff games.
Despite losing so many key players over the years due to salary-cap considerations, the Lightning have remained formidable. In 2023, they were edged out by Toronto in the first round. But when many observers expected that would finally drop them to the next tier after having sacrificed so many picks and prospects, they’re still dangerous. And they’re still doing it with their luminous core group, led by Art Ross front-runner Nikita Kucherov.
If voters were to back DeBoer, Cassidy, Laviolette or Bednar, they’d also be casting ballots for bench bosses with long histories of success. DeBoer has been to the Stanley Cup final twice and the Conference final two more times. The other three all have Cups. And all but Bednar are in just their second seasons with their new teams — the same as Tortorella — and in the upper echelon of Cup challengers.
If the broadcasters are determined to reward a turnaround artist who put a non-playoff team back in the dance, Rick Tocchet’s work in Vancouver has been at least as impressive as what Tortorella has done in Philadelphia — and has been accomplished with a lot less outside noise. And in his first year in Music City, Andrew Brunette has also made a strong debut with the Nashville Predators.
If selected, Tocchet or Brunette would also be first-time winners.
The Flyers aren’t out of a playoff spot yet. But they will be soon if they don’t respond positively to their coach’s latest exhortation on their upcoming road trip. That starts Friday in Buffalo, then carries on to Columbus and Montreal before wrapping against the Rangers next Thursday.
Regardless of where Philadelphia finishes, many other NHL coaches are doing tremendous work that’s worthy of award consideration.
Since Torts already has two Jack Adams awards on his shelf, it’s time to direct the accolades elsewhere.
Related: John Tortorella Doesn’t Care What You Think About Scratching The Flyers’ Captain
Related: NHL Playoff Race: Does Anybody Want the East’s Second Wild-Card Spot?
News Summary:
- Opinion: Forget Tortorella – Other NHL Coaches Deserve the '24 Jack Adams Award More
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