PHILADELPHIA — Ten years ago, John Tortorella was the head coach of the second-best team in the National Hockey League. That setup doesn't sound like one that naturally segues to a discussion of the Flyers, who are poised to be no better than the second-worst team in the National Hockey League. But Tortorella is going to be their coach, and no matter how bad the Flyers might be, they still have to play 82 times. They can't just cancel their season just because they traded three draft picks for Tony DeAngelo and didn't sign Johnny Gaudreau, as much as many of their fans would like them to.
So what will those 82 games look like? What kind of team will the Flyers be? (I'm talking about style here, not quality.) A look back at the 2010-13 New York Rangers actually can provide a decent insight. Under Tortorella, the Rangers reached the playoffs in each of those three consecutive seasons, and the middle season, '11-12, was their best during his tenure. They won 51 games, had 109 points, and reached the Eastern Conference finals, losing in six games to the New Jersey Devils.
What distinguished those Rangers teams was the manner in which they played, the approach that Tortorella relied on, and the demands that he made of his players. He is likely to employ a similar approach and make similar demands in his first season here, for different reasons, to different ends and results.
