Torts and Coaching Staff - Tactical Adjustments in Year 2

[usahockey22flyers]

I'm a huge hockey tactics/strategy nerd - and would love to chat/hear opinions on this.

Been seeing a lot of people say..
-Torts has made some changes to his approach to the game
-Year 2 buy in has been better
-Addition by subtraction improved this team

I think some of that is valid, from what I see

The Good
-Team is just way better at forechecking at EV - especially tied or with a lead, they are really tough to break down, the FWDs are smart and know when to go and when to eat up ice and plug gaps, their breakout never feels easy...also when the D jumps up a level (think 6 and 8) - FWDs are recognizing that, we limit a lot of odd man rushes by actually having some discipline (new concept for this franchise)
-I don't think they are fast enough, but the scheme especially in the 1-2-2 really helps them prevent guys from the other end to stop picking up speed, Foerster has a really good knack on how to get guys going east west or just south
-Breakout is more efficient - and less predictable. I think this is still a weak point of the team, but Coots being back has helped
-Assignments are known in D Zone - I felt under AV and Hak and co - there was always just bad rotations and missed assignments, we don't see too many "gimmies" - also in 2023-2024, we're on track to limit more high quality chances than last year. I think we may be on track for like 715-735 depending on how you want to calculate your #s, last year EV we had 865 I believe. This has tremendously helped Hart and Ersson
-PK is fun again

The Bad/Ugly
-Misuse of Frost, he passes the eye test - his underlying numbers are good. I don't see how he can come out of the lineup again. The rift seems personal
-PP is just downright criminal - no creativity, no easy zone entry, they can't get the puck across the ice in the OZ easy enough. It's really tough to watch
-I agree with Danny that we don't have enough high end skill guys, but I've noticed that some of our younger top end guys who have some speed and ability - Farabee, Brink, TK - chip and chase 1v2, 2v3 - I'd rather these guys have the freedom to keep the puck, and push play and make something happen, rather than getting the puck in deep and relying on yourself or the F2 to win a 50/50 puck or pick off a breakout pass. I get they want to limit odd man rush transition moments that we've seen kill this team the last 5 years, but if we are "rebuilding" - I don't love this approach
-I think they sometimes are too quick to throw the puck on instead of keeping the cycle going for that extra pass - even if it's riskier

Honestly, the team looks a lot more unified at 5v5. I don't love Torts, I don't think he's the right guy for this job - but I have to say, at 5v5 and in transition, we look a lot more secure in our base shell in NZ/DZ. I think the system is too rigid and goes against the idea of creativity, but at the same time - we don't have many creative players to begin with.

I'll be curious to revisit this in 2 months.

Click to read more...

 

[Beef Invictus]

I don't think he's changed much in his approach. It's still heavily focused on north-south hockey with heavy emphasis on defending down low and around the net, which can result in that old NY Tortshell. He hasn't been ranting and raving about how the team is scoring too much and needs to stop with east-west passes, so that is an upgrade thus far. However, it was the same last year until the second half of the season started and he locked down everything into grinding, so I'm interested in seeing if that happens again to "prepare" for the playoffs or whatever. Letting Sanheim go to town is a big positive, but one I doubt is allowed if Provorov isn't fired. Crap players who are the old hockeyguy definition of "safe" but actually are not still get heavily emphasized.

The addition of Couturier is bigger than I expected, and sadly Cates being injured forced him to make some more sane deployments.

The PP keeps getting worse year after year. It's incredible. Letting good players onto the PK instead of relying on "The Specialists" has been missing from this team for eons and it's nice to see. It's a thing the Flyers did with massive success when Briere was playing so I've been wondering if that's his influence at play. Would be cool and happy if that could be an organizational philosophy over a decision that could die with the coaches.

 

[VladDrag]

I'm a huge hockey tactics/strategy nerd - and would love to chat/hear opinions on this.

Been seeing a lot of people say..
-Torts has made some changes to his approach to the game
-Year 2 buy in has been better
-Addition by subtraction improved this team

I think some of that is valid, from what I see

The Good
-Team is just way better at forechecking at EV - especially tied or with a lead, they are really tough to break down, the FWDs are smart and know when to go and when to eat up ice and plug gaps, their breakout never feels easy...also when the D jumps up a level (think 6 and 8) - FWDs are recognizing that, we limit a lot of odd man rushes by actually having some discipline (new concept for this franchise)
-I don't think they are fast enough, but the scheme especially in the 1-2-2 really helps them prevent guys from the other end to stop picking up speed, Foerster has a really good knack on how to get guys going east west or just south
-Breakout is more efficient - and less predictable. I think this is still a weak point of the team, but Coots being back has helped
-Assignments are known in D Zone - I felt under AV and Hak and co - there was always just bad rotations and missed assignments, we don't see too many "gimmies" - also in 2023-2024, we're on track to limit more high quality chances than last year. I think we may be on track for like 715-735 depending on how you want to calculate your #s, last year EV we had 865 I believe. This has tremendously helped Hart and Ersson
-PK is fun again

The Bad/Ugly
-Misuse of Frost, he passes the eye test - his underlying numbers are good. I don't see how he can come out of the lineup again. The rift seems personal
-PP is just downright criminal - no creativity, no easy zone entry, they can't get the puck across the ice in the OZ easy enough. It's really tough to watch
-I agree with Danny that we don't have enough high end skill guys, but I've noticed that some of our younger top end guys who have some speed and ability - Farabee, Brink, TK - chip and chase 1v2, 2v3 - I'd rather these guys have the freedom to keep the puck, and push play and make something happen, rather than getting the puck in deep and relying on yourself or the F2 to win a 50/50 puck or pick off a breakout pass. I get they want to limit odd man rush transition moments that we've seen kill this team the last 5 years, but if we are "rebuilding" - I don't love this approach
-I think they sometimes are too quick to throw the puck on instead of keeping the cycle going for that extra pass - even if it's riskier

Honestly, the team looks a lot more unified at 5v5. I don't love Torts, I don't think he's the right guy for this job - but I have to say, at 5v5 and in transition, we look a lot more secure in our base shell in NZ/DZ. I think the system is too rigid and goes against the idea of creativity, but at the same time - we don't have many creative players to begin with.

I'll be curious to revisit this in 2 months.

This is pretty apt timing. All Three Zones (the tracking site) just launched the 23-24 season data... This gives me a reason to really run through it!

Here are my few things:

1. Roster: This is a much better roster than previous two years. The are icing 11 legitimate NHL forwards and 4-5 legitimate NHL defenders (depending on what you think of Risto). That alone makes them better. That doesn't take away from what Torts has done, it's actually enhanced what he can do . But in general, better players are going to play better hockey. I have significant concerns with player deployment, but that is probably its own post.

2. Forecheck/Backcheck: The FWD group is overall decent-good at recognizing when to aggressively forecheck and when to start back. They have a couple of smart forwards who can think 1 step ahead (Couts, Foerster, Frost, Cates -- Brink can be a guy like that when he gets his timing down), and they have a lot aggressive forecheckers that can cause problems if they get there in time like TK, Farabee, Laughton, Hathaway. The one thing I've noticed, it feels like if the puck gets past the first set of backcheckers, the opposition gets into the D-zone with possession fairly easily. The defensive group does decent job of preventing entries, but the entries that they allow are pretty dangerous against. Zamula currently leads the group in entry denial %, in fact he's among the league leaders in it - he's with Devon Toews and Brent Pesce...We'll see if it continues, but it's cool to see so far.

3. Breakout/NZ/Entries/Cycle: The All Three Zones data shows that basically all of the defenders retrieve the puck reasonably well, IE not many 'botched' retrievals. They also do a decent job of controlling their exits. This is a much better step forward than last season. They are not getting a lot of raw entries but the ones they are getting are controlled, and chances are coming from those controlled entries. The problem is that after they get their first chance, they don't have many 2-3rd chances after that. The can't cycle for shit. To me that's limited by the players they have (they don't have smart enough or skilled enough players), and also because of Torts' idea that they have to get in front of the net. I can't tell you how many times, I've seen someone just get to the front of the net once the D has the puck, because that's what they are being coached to do. It's just such an outdated way to attack. Also Farabee is being wasted by playing with Laughton and Atkinson. If you were to put Farabee with Frost and Brink, I think you would see a decent increase in cycle offense on that line, and see more rush offensive on the Laughton-Atkinson-Tippett line. But ultimately, they need 2-3 better forwards in the middle-6.

4. D-Zone Coverage: It's been pretty good for the most part. The coaching staff deserves credit for getting players to go all out in shot blocking - you don't block shots, you don't play. We've seen players step up and block shots like crazy. One thing that I've noticed is that Farabee is not a good defensive player at all. He is constantly out of position, or going to the wrong man...But he's more than making it up for his offense right now.

 

[Curufinwe]

Farabee's 2.8 ESP/60 puts him 38th= in Forwards with 200+ TOI. And he's done it despite not getting to play with Couturier and TK. Imagine how good our top line would be with Farabee on it.

Player Season Totals - Natural Stat Trick

Right between Kopitar and Giroux.

 

[BringBackHakstol]

The roster this year is both a lot better and also a lot more suited to how Torts wants the team to play. It gives me Islanders vibes of a false contender, where they play the way they need to get the most out of their roster, but in the end its just nowhere near good enough to be an actual good team. They also feel like they could be a key injury or two away from being bad again

 

[Curufinwe]

If Hart is sick or unavailable for any length of time, they will struggle.

 

[Deadpool8812]

If Hart is sick or unavailable for any length of time, they will struggle.

But the Authentics have constantly told Ersson is better than Hart....

 

[GKJ]

But the Authentics have constantly told Ersson is better than Hart....

I thought they were telling us you can’t trade Hart because you need him in 6 year on the other side of the rebuild (which doesn’t exist)

 

[tinycars]

I have no idea what is good or bad about this team.

I just run around during the games punching and kicking things, either out of frustration or celebration.

 

[BackToTheBrierePatch]

But the Authentics have constantly told Ersson is better than Hart....

I haven’t seen that being said but its hard to complain about Ersson since the beginning of November. Outside of those first 3 or 4 starts he’s been fine

 

[renberg]

It’s probably just me but I don’t think that this club is that much better than last year’s bunch aside from Couturier coming back and playing well. It must be that Hayes Provorov and TDA were that much of a drag on the club that getting SC back and Walker playing we’ll make that much of a difference. I don’t see Tortorella getting a different system of play installed that improved play. Positionally they’re still weak at center; the defense is a bit light in talent and the PP is horrible. These things should make their success so far unsustainable.
Maybe it’s that the overall play in the league has slid which makes the Flyers look better. Like last night, the Caps were awful. A week ago the Pens looked like hot garbage. Other teams that should be good aren’t playing well either.

 

[AndHeMissedTheNet]

i still find it funny how year one of "n-no guys we're rebuilding w-we swear" unironically looks like they're fielding a more competitive team than the last 2 years of chuckles.