John Tortorella Profanely Defends Banning iPads From Flyers Bench

Philadelphia Flyers head coach John Tortorella

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The Philadelphia Flyers headed into the most recent NHL offseason in need of a permanent head coach, as the franchise named Mike Yeo to an interim role following the decision to fire Alain Vigneault midway through the previous campaign. It eventually found its man in the form of John Tortorella, the notoriously fiery skipper who’d most recently roamed the bench in Columbus.

Tortorella is a notoriously Old School Hockey Guy; after all, we’re talking about someone who tried to argue the insane alley-oop goal Trevor Zegras helped make possible is Actually Bad for the sport.

As a result, there were plenty of questions about whether or not his no-nonsense style would mesh with a locker room filled with young players bracing themselves for a potential rebuild.

Based on how things have panned out so far, those concerns now seem fairly warranted. The team got off to a fairly solid start, but it didn’t take long for things to start falling apart en route to racking up the 17-18-7 record Philly currently boasts.

As things currently stand, it seems like there’s a very good chance the Flyers will fail to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the third consecutive year. An already frustrated fanbase could theoretically take solace in knowing every loss increases the chance the Flyers could end up drafting presumptive No. 1 pick Connor Bedard, but the middling team can’t even figure out how to master the art of the tank.

Torts has done what he can to send a message to the locker room by benching Kevin Hayes and Tony DeAngelo (the latter of whom he praised after the Flyers traded for the controversial defenseman). After those healthy scratches failed to have the desired impact, he pulled the ultimate “Old Man Yells At Cloud” move earlier this week by banishing iPads (which every other NHL team uses to give players midgame feedback) from the Flyers bench.

The head coach framed that Ludditesque decision as a way to reduce distractions, saying, “I just want them worrying about the next shift.” While the move was understandably met with a fair amount of skepticism, it’s safe to say he has no plans to immediately change course based on the fiery defense he issued on Friday.