John Tortorella Is A Magician And The Philadelphia Flyers Are A Bunch Of Dawgs
Len Redkoles. Getty Images.Here's a fun little fact about the Philadelphia Flyers for all the boys and girls back home--they are an absolute wagon.
At least for now. You'd think what they're doing right now to start the season won't be sustainable in the long run. It's obvious the Flyers aren't a ~skill~ team. But throughout the entire 2021-22 season, the Philadelphia Flyers had ZERO wins in games which they came back from being down 2 or more goals. Zero. This team was gutless, they were lifeless, and as soon as things got tough they would just shut down completely. 2-goal deficit? Time to hit the showers.
Through just 3 games this year, the Flyers already have two of those wins. The comeback kids are alright.
When Steven Stamkos scored his 2nd goal of the night last night, the old Flyers fan in me figured I'd be able to just turn the game off and focus on the Sixers and Phillies. I thought not only would the Flyers not have it in them offensively to score 2 goals against the Lightning, but they also wouldn't be able to keep Tampa from filling up the back of the net for the rest of the night. Well turns out you can call me Weird Haircut Seth, because I'm a fucking idiot.
3 straight goals to take the lead. This team. This goddamn team. But even still, you figured that Tampa is Tampa and that the Flyers are the Flyers. 7 minutes left in the game is plenty of time for Brayden Point to tie the game at 3 and then for Stamkos to finish off his hatty to deliver the dagger. Again, Weird Haircut Seth.
37 stops on the night for Carter Hart. A .943sv% through the first 3 games (early sample size, I know). But it's pretty damn obvious that what the Flyers lack in skill, they make up for with how difficult this team is going to be to play against all season. They have a goalie who is finally starting to look like the elite caliber prospect we all hoped and dreamed he would become. And in front of him, they have a team who doesn't make a ton of costly mistakes, wins a ton of battles for loose pucks, and are more than willing to literally beat the shit out of you for 60 straight minutes.
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That's all Torts right there. Just think about how many times over the past couple of seasons it looked like we were going to get a great game out of Carter Hart, only for a brutal turnover at the Flyers' own blue line to end up in the back of the net 6 seconds later and all of a sudden the game got totally derailed from there. The Flyers were addicted to compounding mistakes and it resulted in a team that essentially just became a night off for most NHL teams. They knew all they had to do was take advantage of one little mistake the Flyers made and then things would snowball out of control from there. And that's just not the case so far this year, all thanks to this man.
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Torts is a maniac. I think we all knew that already. He's going to be brutally honest at all times. He's going to be hard on guys. He doesn't give a shit who you are or what you've done before. All that matters to him is how you are going to help the team right now. And so far that has turned this roster into a bunch of dawgs. A bunch of guys who know their ass in on the line if they don't perform. A little thing called accountability. That's been missing from this organization for years.
So again, I'm not going to pretend like this 3-0 start is sustainable for the entire season. There are still plenty of missing pieces and things the Flyers need to work on before they should even think about potentially being a playoff team. But at the very least, this is going to be a team that is fun to watch because they're going to fight until the end of every game. Literally and figuratively. The days of being able to turn off the Flyers once they get down 2-0 in the 2nd period because you already know the outcome are over. This team is going to grind. Whether it's because they actually care or whether they're just deathly afraid of Torts, that's still yet to be determined. But that's the magic of Torts.
Sidenote: I was thinking about this during Travis Konecny's interview during one of the intermissions last night. I think at the end of the day, losing Claude Giroux was huge for Konecny's development. I'm sure it's also the combination of having Torts behind the bench, but I think not having Giroux around has forced TK to grow up and mature into a leader. We know he has those qualities in him since he wore a C in junior. So we might lose some of the chirps, but it's pretty clear through the first 3 games this season that we are getting a different Travis Konecny who is ready to step up and be a key piece of this roster moving forward for the future. Which is great to see considering 90% of the fanbase wanted to trade him last year.
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