John Tortorella Takes Accountability For Missteps During Season, Praises Flyers Locker Room

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The Philadelphia Flyers held their exit interviews this week after their season concluded against the Washington Capitals on Tuesday, with head coach John Tortorella speaking to the media on Friday to discuss his thoughts on the Flyers’ season as a whole.

There were plenty of controversies to parse through across the year, but one overarching theme with Tortorella in this press conference was that he felt like a lot of the Flyers’ shortcomings were his own fault.

“I just did not close the deal,” he said. “Was the messaging right at certain times? There’s a lot of things that run through my mind as a coach when you’re that close and you don’t get there, so that’s something that I’ve gotta evaluate over the summer. Could I have done some things differently? That’s kind of the process I’m in right now.

“I do a lot of thinking as far as, ‘What could I have done better here? Was that right? Did that work?’ All that goes through your head. Coaches don’t get too much feedback. I think it’s really important for coaches to self-evaluate, and you need to self-evaluate honestly. I’ve been going through that the past couple of days because it’s just fresh off of a crazy game and a crazy ending to the season. It’s a game of mistakes for players, and it’s a game of mistakes for coaches. I’ve made some mistakes this year—not the ones you may think I did, some of the ones that you have no clue what I did or have any thoughts on it. There are other things that go on that [the public] is not privy to and you’re not supposed to be.”

For Tortorella, the most unsatisfying part was not making it to the playoffs—not because he expected them to make a deep run, but because he knows invaluable it is for players to experience a true playoff atmosphere.

“That was frustrating for me, as a part of their development,” he said. “You want to get in. That’s where I’m disappointed in myself a little bit, [thinking] ‘Could you have done this differently?’ I don’t think we do a whole bunch [in the playoffs], but we get an opportunity. We’re staying with the process.”

A process—that’s what the Philadelphia Flyers are still in, despite exceeding expectations all season. Both Tortorella and GM Danny Briere emphasized that the rebuild is still happening, and that the team is nowhere near being the finished product they’re envisioning.

That being said, Tortorella admired the togetherness the locker room had, which he believes provides an ideal foundation as the rebuild continues.

“When I saw the room come together pretty early on, you could sense that we found a way pretty quickly to play as a team,” he said. “I think that’s really important in a long seven-month, 82-game schedule. Where we’re at as an organization, that’s a really important point as far as one of those blocks in the foundation. Early on, I knew we were going to be competitive. You could sense it in the room, ‘Let’s go, and let’s block out the noise as far as what people thought we were going to be. Let’s just keep it together.'”

Even when they’re not seeing each other at the rink every day, it’s evident that there is genuine chemistry in this team, and that’s something that Tortorella believes that they should look back fondly on the strides they’ve made together.

“They’ll spend some time [reflecting on the season], and if they spend some time thinking about it, they should feel good about it,” he said. “I think we forget—because we got so close and think, ‘Holy s***, this was an awful year,’—we progressed this year. A number of players progressed this year. We found a style of play that fits us this year. I found out that we have some more to do and how to play in other parts of the year. These are questions, and I think we have some answers. So if you’re getting answers, and most of them, I think, are positive, then you’ve progressed. I think the players should feel good about themselves. That room is one of the most impressive rooms I’ve been involved in. In talking to some of the guys, I think they basically echoed that.”

That doesn’t mean he isn’t just a tad envious of the good times his players have now that they have some downtime.

“They’re all golfing—I’m so jealous of the players, playing softball yesterday, now they’re all golfing somewhere—but they’re together,” he emphasized. “That’s so important. There’s gonna be changes, some won’t be here and there’ll probably be some adds, but we have a good footing and that’s so important as we start this process.”

As for where Tortorella will be as the rebuild continues…well, perhaps unsurprisingly, he doesn’t plan on budging until he’s forced out the door.

“I’m as energized as I’ve ever been,” he stated. “This team here, the organization…I love working here. I’m already thinking about next year…I am totally in until Danny [Briere] says, ‘Get the hell out of here.'”

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