VOORHEES, N.J. — Some might be waiting for John Tortorella to blow a gasket.
With his reputation of being fiercely competitive, having a true hatred for losing, the head coach has to be fighting his patience right now.
Right?
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His Flyers are absolutely feeling the reality of rebuilding. They traded away five players in five weeks. They're 0-5-0 on a season-long seven-game homestand and have been outscored 22-8. Unlike last season, they're more relevant in the NHL draft lottery talk than they are the playoff race with 16 games to go.
How challenging has this been for Tortorella?
"You know what's challenging for me, I feel bad for those guys," he said Thursday morning, pointing to his players on the ice. "I feel for my team. Especially the guys that have been here for the three years — I'm speaking for my years being here — the guys that have gone through this for three years.
"They've done their work, they've pushed, I think guys have developed, they've hung together, they've stuck together. This is the first time, at least in the last two years, that it's a tough hill to climb. So I feel for them and I feel for my coaching staff, Danny Briere, the whole organization. We want to get where we want to be."
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Tortorella has been upfront about the Flyers' long road to contention going back to when he was hired in June 2022. He has defended Briere's future-centric trades, even when it makes life tougher on the coach.
"The deadline was a seller's market, I thought Danny did some great things there," Tortorella said. "Then we're here. It sucks. But we just have to keep our eye on the ball, I have to stay patient as far as some of the things that we're probably going to go through here in the last quarter of the year, evaluate, but also try to win.
"I'm still going to teach, there are going to be certain situations that there's going to be accountability brought in. Every day there's accountability, I'm still going to go about it that way."
There will be a running debate until the end of the season about whether the Flyers should want to win their remaining games. More losses would of course improve the team's draft position this summer. But the Flyers won't sacrifice their standard. From Day 1, Briere has emphasized the importance of "not tanking" and cultivating a winning environment.
A section of fans might feel differently.
"We're not really listening to that," Travis Sanheim said. "Once you get in this stretch, maybe the fans are looking at it from a different perspective, but for us in this locker room, we're trying to get better, we're trying to build something here and being able to do that is winning hockey games. Finding ways to win, learning from our mistakes and trying to get better. We've got a really young group now and just trying to help each other out. ... We're building something here and that's the most important thing right now."
The Flyers are slotted to have six first-round selections over the next three drafts. This summer, they'll have seven picks in the first two rounds (three first-rounders, four second-rounders).
"We're in a really good spot," Briere said last Friday. "It's probably progressing a little quicker than I even expected. Some of our young guys are stepping up. ... There are a lot of positives."
As much as Tortorella would like to be making a playoff push, he knows where the Flyers stand in their rebuild. Despite the trades, he won't lose sight of his players and trying to win.
"Those are the guys that it's hard for, they're seeing teams ramping up, it's the greatest time of the year," Tortorella said. "It's difficult for them to watch, so I really feel for them."
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