John Tortorella Has Hilariously Brutal Reply To Question About Flyers’ Strengths Ahead Of Season Opener

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Most hockey fans are likely very familiar with the reputation surrounding John Tortorella, the former ECHL player-turned-NHL head coach who is basically the league’s equivalent of Bill Belichick (a comparison that would work a bit better if the Patriots skipper had never been able to replicate his success after winning a single championship title in the early 2000s).

The man commonly referred to as “Torts” made a name for himself when he managed to reverse the fortunes of a Tampa Bay Lightning team that had appeared in the playoffs a single time in its first decade of existence before he stepped behind the bench to guide them to the first Stanley Cup in franchise history in 2004.

Tortorella was unable to recapture that magic during his subsequent stints with the Rangers, Canucks, and Blue Jackets, and while he’s repeatedly flirted with a career in broadcasting, the Flyers were able to convince the famously gruff and no-nonsense coach to helm a team that experienced a major dropoff following a promising campaign during the 2019-20 season.

There are plenty of questions surrounding Philadelphia heading into a season that will officially kick off on Thursday night when they host the Devils at Wells Fargo Center—and I have a feeling Tortarella’s answer to one that was lobbed his way by a reporter won’t exactly help inspire confidence among Flyers fans.

John Tortorella only needed one word to answer a question about whether or not he’s identified any strengths the Philadelphia Flyers have

On Thursday, John Clark of NBC Sports shared a clip from a recent interview with Torts where he was met with a one-word response when he asked if the coach has identified any areas the Flyers are already good at and can build on heading into the season: “No.”

Tortorella did elaborate a bit more and suggested there was a potential upside to not being able to identify any major strengths after spending a few months with a team that landed in the 30th spot on ESPN’s preseason power rankings—only above a franchise that’s sharing a 5,000-seat arena with a college hockey team and a Chicago squad that’s seemingly attempting one of the most shameless tank jobs in recent memory.

Here’s what he had to say about how Philly can theoretically benefit from that lack of identifiable skills:

“I think that a huge part of becoming a team is developing an identity. I think we’re a bit scattered, and a huge part of my job is to bring it together to develop that identity…

This is one of the best cities in pro sports that you can sort of join in with and develop that kind of identity, and it’s had a history of playing the right way towards the city. That’s where I’d like to try to get it to.”

It’s likely Torts was alluding to the “Broad Street Bullies” moniker the Flyers earned in the late 1960s and early ’70s, a brand of hockey that frequently involved letting body checks and fists do the talking to make up for a lack of scoring.

We’ll be in for one hell of a treat if the Flyers are able to return to that particular form, but it seems like there’s a very good chance the team is going to have to grapple with some serious growing pains before potentially reaching that point.