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.