Tribute The Official "Fire Tortorella" Thread

freakydallas13

Registered User
Jan 30, 2007
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Victoria, BC
  • Do I tolerate when speakers ask and then answer questions? Yes. Have I done this myself? Yes. Does Russ Joy overuse this speaking technique? Absolutely.
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Beef Invictus

Revolutionary Positivity
Dec 21, 2009
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Good write up.

Bad news, I pondered more.


The Flyers' overarching philosophy that spits on the idea of offense is limiting. It takes options off the table. In no sport is it a good idea to limit yourself and remove options.

I watch the Flyers on offense, and how thoroughly smothered they are. They're clearly figured out by a league that's seen them repeatedly. They aren't just individually beaten as players, these individuals have nowhere to go. And Tortorella has given them no Plan B.

I have long thumped admirably on Boston's transition under Julien. The team could chip it in. They could carry it in, too. But they were rarely easily contained by any team, because they had a neat Plan C for when a team was doing a good job stopping both: They passed to the other side of the ice. Like, long-ass borderline stretch pass from near the boards to near the opposite boards. The reasoning was simple: If a team is able to stop us from dumping and chasing, and also leaving no room to carry in, there must be room somewhere, and they bet it was on the other side of the ice. And this simple solution worked well. Sure enough, there was usually more room, and the act of passing across forced teams to open up and create more room as they reacted and shifted. It's not like Carolina, who when you watch them you start noticing they have an array of prepared plays to gain the zone. Or TB, who for multiple years had somehow managed to make the long-mocked stretch transition into a multi-level beast that was hell to stop and seemed to rely on careful timing and spacing of guys of different speeds stretching opponents apart.

Nah. Just the simplest "Well they have covered A, and covered B, so we shall do C until we can do the other things again."

What plan B does Tortorella provide? None. There has been the one plan. No other option. Forget the idea of a 3rd. That's work, and as Tortorella said when hired, he doesn't bother to do that part of the job anymore because he hates talking to players. I wanted to make this thread the second those quotes dropped, but I was patient.
 
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deadhead

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Feb 26, 2014
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I have long thumped admirably on Boston's transition under Julien.
It's not like Carolina,

Gee, I see where you picked three relatively untalented teams that were elevated by their coaches.
Flyers have struggled under Lavi, Berube, Hextall, AV, Torts.
Hmm. wonder what the common denominator has been?

Couldn't be talent, because I've been told the FO is brilliant at drafting and developing talent.
Must be coaching.

Did notice the schemes that don't work did work when the line was Giroux - Couts - Voracek/TK.
Wonder if that was a coincidence?
 

Beef Invictus

Revolutionary Positivity
Dec 21, 2009
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Couldn't be talent, because I've been told the FO is brilliant at drafting and developing talent.
Must be coaching.

I can't take any of this post seriously because of this bit. I have been vigorously telling you the exact opposite thing for years and years. You're confusing me with you.
 

Hollywood Cannon

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Jul 17, 2007
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Gee, I see where you picked three relatively untalented teams that were elevated by their coaches.
Flyers have struggled under Lavi, Berube, Hextall, AV, Torts.
Hmm. wonder what the common denominator has been?

Couldn't be talent, because I've been told the FO is brilliant at drafting and developing talent.
Must be coaching.

Did notice the schemes that don't work did work when the line was Giroux - Couts - Voracek/TK.
Wonder if that was a coincidence?
Wait, what?
 

Beef Invictus

Revolutionary Positivity
Dec 21, 2009
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But fine. Let's roll with a team with shitty talent.

The Flyers under Hakstol. Once Knoblauch came in and coached up controlled entries, the Flyers became pretty damned dangerous on the rush. They could dump it in if teams were holding the line, and if teams gave them space to get ready for a dump-in they could carry it in with possession. A sin of AV was that he removed that Plan B, and then later tried to run dump-ins with a single forechecker. (This led to people arguing that the same Flyers players who had been running controlled entries were too slow and bad to do so, thus AV was very smart to not try, despite us having seen thoroughly that they could. hmmm)

Once the Flyers settled into the zone, they had the single plan: feed dmen. And they consequently sucked on the cycle. Sucked horribly. But in the stage of the game where they had more than one plan to rely on? Far better.

Tortorella has a single plan and nothing else. The team would immediately improve if there was another. There is not.
 

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