Tribute The Official "Fire Tortorella" Thread

[VladDrag]

Torts ain't shit. He's blunt, but he's not an asshole like AV.

He's not the most creative in terms of scheme, his strength is teaching, he'll leave a fundamentally sound team behind him when he finally leaves the bench. And it'll be a team where players hold each other accountable, which will make it easier for a new HC (I'm betting on Sullivan, Pens will implode in a couple years) to take over.

He’s not completely useless like AV. He does bring structure in a sense of professionalism, how to show up and work everyday. As much as that gets made fun of, that is important when trying to perform at the highest level. It’s also clear that he takes care of his players….If you’re not…

To say Torts doesn’t have some value, that’s not true. But he also brings a measurable amount of negative value. It’s clear that he has ‘his guys,’ that is players who get more rope than others. It’s clear that he doesn’t understand and/or value high end skill as much as it should, it’s clear he’s not a good communicator in that he doesn’t (at least last year didn’t) talk to players one on one. His personality is divisive by nature. He will purposefully scratch players in their hometown to send a message. And his worst trait, he thinks he’s the smartest person in the room, and only thinks his way is correct.

This rubs players and mgmt the wrong way. It’s why he has a shelf life of 3-5 years.

 

[kudymen]

Logs in once in a month
Complains about complaining
Never responds
Logs out only to come back again in a month

Repeat

Lol

 

[freakydallas13]

Who around here has every admitted to a mistake?

I thought Kevin Marshall was a lock as a top 4 d-man

 

[Striiker]

At one point I thought Provorov was a top pair defensemen

What a f***in idiot

 

[VladDrag]

At one point I thought Provorov was a top pair defensemen

What a f***in idiot

Me too

 

[Kelmitchell2]

yah i was one of the few that wanted Torts back then..

godam has he ever turned out to be everything people said he was..

sigh

I tried telling you it wouldn't go well even back then lol

Who around here has every admitted to a mistake?

Me for sure, I've done it every time I've made a mistake, you should try it out, it's not a bad feeling to admit you're wrong

 

[deadhead]

He’s not completely useless like AV. He does bring structure in a sense of professionalism, how to show up and work everyday. As much as that gets made fun of, that is important when trying to perform at the highest level. It’s also clear that he takes care of his players….If you’re not…

To say Torts doesn’t have some value, that’s not true. But he also brings a measurable amount of negative value. It’s clear that he has ‘his guys,’ that is players who get more rope than others. It’s clear that he doesn’t understand and/or value high end skill as much as it should, it’s clear he’s not a good communicator in that he doesn’t (at least last year didn’t) talk to players one on one. His personality is divisive by nature. He will purposefully scratch players in their hometown to send a message. And his worst trait, he thinks he’s the smartest person in the room, and only thinks his way is correct.

This rubs players and mgmt the wrong way. It’s why he has a shelf life of 3-5 years.

7 years in TB, 4 in NYR, 6 in CBJ (and the GM pushed him out by trading for Laine - the anti-Torts player).

I think he values high end skill, he's had St Louis, Panarin, etc. Look how fast Brink's minutes went up.
But he demands that high skill players still try on defense, and some scorers don't want to work on defense. He could never deal with someone like Patrick Kane. But he'd love Sidney. If Michkov is as competitive as they say, he'll get along fine with Torts.

I don't think he gives more rope to "his guys," rather, you become his guy by doing the things he asks of you, and he's patient with players who do so. I mean look at TK, he'd drive a lot of HCs crazy with his mistakes, but he plays with a high motor, is highly competitive, and tries to play defense. So Torts grits his teeth and keeps throwing him out there. We're seeing a similar thing with Tippett.

Yes, he wants his guys, most top HCs clear out the guys who won't play the game the way they want. If you take over a competitive team, you coach around the guys you have until you can get rid of the ones you don't want, when you're rebuilding, you don't have to bother with that.

 

[Kelmitchell2]

I was wrong about provy and if you go back to that year and look at the draft thread, he was who I wanted all season long!

I was wrong about risto being a stud, I wanted him in his draft year, as well as nichuskin

I was wrong about Brayden schenn, I hated him as a player and thought he'd max out around 50 points

I was wrong thinking av, therein, and yeo would be a strong coaching staff

I was wrong in thinking Eric wellwood would be a great 3rd line winger

I was wrong think nick Grossman would be a solid addition

I was wrong in thinking hextalls plan would work

Hell I've been wrong quite a bit, and I've also been right about alot, none of us are perfect, difference is, we can admit our mistakes and we don't double down and defend our mistakes

 

[Pet Charles]

I hate watching Torts slowly drive Frost’s value into the ground. I hate even more that Briere allows it to happen. As a reminder, Torts is only the coach.

I’m comfortable that some might not agree with they view, which is rooted in my belief that a coach is a middle manager, and he should work with the players the GM puts on the roster.

 

[JojoTheWhale]

At one point I thought Provorov was a top pair defensemen

What a f***in idiot

Me too. On both counts.

I thought Lupul would be a consistent 30G+ type here.

Pitkanen was going to hit Norris level. I suspect I’m not alone in this one.

I never saw a single redeeming quality in Dainius Zubrus.

I absolutely loved the Meszaros acquisition.

I was positive Mike Comrie was going to get back on track after leaving Edmonton.

I’m so thankful I wasn’t posting anywhere about hockey during the Marty Murray years. For the life of me, I could not understand why they weren’t aggressively pushing him up the lineup.

 

[mja]

Me too. On both counts.

I thought Lupul would be a consistent 30G+ type here.

Pitkanen was going to hit Norris level. I suspect I’m not alone in this one.

I never saw a single redeeming quality in Dainius Zubrus.

I absolutely loved the Meszaros acquisition.

I was positive Mike Comrie was going to get back on track after leaving Edmonton.

I’m so thankful I wasn’t posting anywhere about hockey during the Marty Murray years. For the life of me, I could not understand why they weren’t aggressively pushing him up the lineup.

I can co-sign on both of those.

 

[deadhead]

I was wrong about Hextall being able to use his draft picks effectively, I bought into the hype about our great prospect pool. I thought Myers was gong to be special with his size, speed and shot, and didn't realize he had rocks for brains. I was fooled by Provorov being so solid at 19, not realizing that he was already maxed out physically and had little upside left. I thought they had built a solid bottom six with Vorobyev, Bunnaman, Twarynski,, Ratcliffe, Rubtsov as big physical wingers with a modicum of skill.

I was wrong about Hayes aging into an effective wing, turns out he wasn't wiling to accept aging gracefully (as he lost foot speed, to accept that wing was a better spot).

I was wrong about Sanheim ever becoming more than a finesse 2nd pair D-man (so far, it's a SSS but he's really impressed me by taking his game up a level).

I was wrong about G being the outlier that blew up the aging curve.

I thought the Flyers were better than they were the last decade and didn't realize that they were a 90 point team that made the playoffs on coaching and natural variance. That is, the underlying talent simply was that of a 15-20th ranked team.

There are some things that some say were a mistake but I disagree:

Fletcher did a fine job doing what he was hired to do in 2019, "win now." Rebuilt the team into a winner without sacrificing a first rd pick and only one second round pick. Whether they should have followed that strategy was above his pay grade (Holmgren's decision). 2021-22 was a different story.

I thought Hakstol did a good job taking what was essentially a 90 point roster to the playoffs twice.
Again, he did his job, now whether they should have been playing that style of hockey instead of focusing on a longer term strategy of player development and rebuilding was above his pay grade.

 

[Beef Invictus]

Who around here has every admitted to a mistake?

I think almost everyone, actually. And they survived!

 

[Striiker]

Me too. On both counts.

I thought Lupul would be a consistent 30G+ type here.

Pitkanen was going to hit Norris level. I suspect I’m not alone in this one.

I never saw a single redeeming quality in Dainius Zubrus.

I absolutely loved the Meszaros acquisition.

I was positive Mike Comrie was going to get back on track after leaving Edmonton.

I’m so thankful I wasn’t posting anywhere about hockey during the Marty Murray years. For the life of me, I could not understand why they weren’t aggressively pushing him up the lineup.

I spent the last 10 minutes looking for the post where you called Ghost “decent” or “ok” or something horribly disrespectful like that a few months back.

I can’t find it because I don’t remember the exact wording. Very upsetting. But just know I haven’t forgiven you.

 

[Kelmitchell2]

I can co-sign on both of those.

Same I loved pitkanen, I thought he was gonna be a #1 defenseman for a long time with us, I also thought Luca sbisa was gonna be a solid #3 type of defenseman, I also desperately wanted us to trade for Marty turco at one point because I truly thought he'd be the missing piece (he fell of so quickly after that)

 

[Pet Charles]

I haven’t been wrong about anything. It’s the memories of others that have change.

 

[Flyerfan4life]

I was wrong about provy and if you go back to that year and look at the draft thread, he was who I wanted all season long!

I was wrong about risto being a stud, I wanted him in his draft year, as well as nichuskin

I was wrong about Brayden schenn, I hated him as a player and thought he'd max out around 50 points

I was wrong thinking av, therein, and yeo would be a strong coaching staff

I was wrong in thinking Eric wellwood would be a great 3rd line winger

I was wrong think nick Grossman would be a solid addition

I was wrong in thinking hextalls plan would work

Hell I've been wrong quite a bit, and I've also been right about alot, none of us are perfect, difference is, we can admit our mistakes and we don't double down and defend our mistakes

exactly.. in the end no one here cares if ur right or wrong.

just say you got it wrong n move on !!!

 

[kudymen]

Seeing the Pitkanen love, I have a random question. Any past love for Michal Sýkora including over the top expectations?

 

[Kelmitchell2]

Seeing the Pitkanen love, I have a random question. Any past love for Michal Sýkora including over the top expectations?

No I honestly had zero expectations for him, and I hated the Joel Otto trade (not because I knew as much about hockey at the time, but because my brother despised the trade.....I was a kid sooooo) but I was wrong about Justin Williams, I liked him, but I had a feeling he was going to flame out and be nothing more than a glorified bottom 6 winger......woof

 

[freakydallas13]

I was also convinced Joacim Eriksson was this team's goaltender of the future. He played 1 NHL game ever, allowing 6 goals in 36 minutes

I didn't expect a bunch of people to talk about their hilariously bad takes, but it was honestly kind of nice.

 

[Beef Invictus]

I was certain Akeson could carve out a weird career as a poor man's Giroux being a unique 3rd line playmaker but wow did he never come remotely close to figuring out how to have enough space to make plays in the NHL.

 

[Flyerfan4life]

I was also convinced Joacim Eriksson was this team's goaltender of the future. He played 1 NHL game ever, allowing 6 goals in 36 minutes

I didn't expect a bunch of people to talk about their hilariously bad takes, but it was honestly kind of nice.

i remembering thinking Zherdev was gunna be pimp in Philly.. instead he was more interested in riding around in limos..

hahaaa

 

[Kelmitchell2]

I was also convinced Joacim Eriksson was this team's goaltender of the future. He played 1 NHL game ever, allowing 6 goals in 36 minutes

I didn't expect a bunch of people to talk about their hilariously bad takes, but it was honestly kind of nice.

Same here, but with Maxime Ouellette lmao

 

[Beef Invictus]

Same here, but with Maxime Ouellette lmao

Young Beef came away from the 00 playoffs certain that Boucher would be our long term foolproof solution in net. Then he taught me some important things about the nature of goaltending in the NHL

 

[Chicken N Raffls]

Watching Raffl's first preseason, I thought he was going to be a great pick up. Turned out to be a super stud and maybe the best UDFA signing in Flyers (NHL) history? So....1 for 1 for me. Sorry about all the times you guys have been wrong.

But yea, fine, I bought into the perennial Norris hype for Provy. Had very, very high hopes for Myers. The Weal "Best player in the AHL" thing kind of got me. I thought Rinaldo could be something if he just wised up. Was never big on Brayden Schenn. The list goes on.