April 18, 2025 • 43 mins
SteelFlyers All Sports Network presents
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The Hockey Writers Ink Eps. 190 "Torts Out, Shaw in, what is next?!!"
Relax the keyboard is off, the press box is closed, and the mic is just getting warmed up as the Guardian of the Blue paint turned writer is about to enlighten us!
The show where the writer is fresh off the presses and the ink is not dry.
Welcome to the Hockey Writers Ink, join Lance Green and Ron "SteelFlyers" as we bring you all the latest on the Philadelphia Flyers and Lehigh Valley Phantoms!
Article #1
https://steelflyers.com/should-flyers...
This week's talking points:
1. INTRO & THANKS
2. Torts fired
3. Shaw in and what is next
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Brought to you by steelflyers.com
The Hockey Writers Ink Eps. 190 "Torts Out, Shaw in, what is next?!!"
Relax the keyboard is off, the press box is closed, and the mic is just getting warmed up as the Guardian of the Blue paint turned writer is about to enlighten us!
The show where the writer is fresh off the presses and the ink is not dry.
Welcome to the Hockey Writers Ink, join Lance Green and Ron "SteelFlyers" as we bring you all the latest on the Philadelphia Flyers and Lehigh Valley Phantoms!
Article #1
https://steelflyers.com/should-flyers...
This week's talking points:
1. INTRO & THANKS
2. Torts fired
3. Shaw in and what is next
BIG THANKS to our friends Lower Case Blues for the awesome tunes:
Web: lowercaseblues.net
FaceBook: www.facebook.com/lowercaseblues/
Instagram: www.instagram.com/lower_case_blues?utm_medium=copy_link
Get all your Hockey Writers Ink information at
https://steelflyers.com/links/hockeyw...
https://www.spreaker.com/show/the-hoc...
Also catch us at Sports Spyder - https://sportspyder.com/
Follow the show on X @HckyWritersInk
Your Host Lance Green on X @LanceGreen39
Co-Host SteelFlyers on X @SteelFlyers52
Please hit the "Like" and "Subscribe"
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-....
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-hockey-writers-ink--4748032/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to The Hockey Writer's Inc. The show where the
writer is fresh off the presses and the ink is
not dry, relaxed, the keyboard is off and the press
boxes closed, with the mic is just getting warmed up.
Join your host Lance Green, the guardian of the blue
paint turned writer, and your co host Ron Steele Flyers
as we bring you all the latest on the Philadelphia Flyers.
(00:41):
Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to the next episode of The
Hockey Writers, Inc. With your host Lan Screen.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
All right, guys, some big news out of Philadelphia today.
Wows right still, I mean I was not expecting that.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Now. I don't think anybody will well, let's just say this.
I don't think anybody outside of the Comcast Spectacor Center
was expecting this at all. But ladies and gentlemen, Tortorella
has been relieved of duties from the Philadelphia Flyers. And
first of all, before we get started, if you like
(01:19):
what we do, please with the like and subscribe. Man.
We really appreciate that, and we really thank you for that.
Welcome to the Hockey Writers Think of Philadelphia Flyers Centric podcast.
And I got to tell you something, folks. We got major, major,
News special Edition Breaking News. Tortorella has been relieved of
(01:42):
duties from the Philadelphia Flyers and Bradshaw has been hired
as an interim coach. Lance, you put out an article
just the other day about embracing the suck and then
what was it back in October?
Speaker 3 (01:59):
October?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Rightwen?
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Actually, yes, Halloween?
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Right, you released another article about should management be looking
for a replacement for Tortorella? That was back in October
of twenty twenty four. There, folks, it's like this guy
knows man, you know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Like I was called crazy at the time.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
You knew Cortorella was the savior and that he was
the best coach for the job.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
And I was part of that train. I honestly, I
was part of that train. I always back you, Lance,
sometimes we agree to disagree, but I really thought, Okay,
he's gonna see us through. I thought that he was
going to be the guy. But nope, the Savant came through.
You know, the Batman and Robin of Philadelphia Flyers podcast
(02:50):
already had this pegged out. Lance was already all over
that way back in October. So okay, your initial thought
that hit your mind when you first saw that Totebella
was let go what was the first thing and hit
your minds relief? Wow, all right, that was not the
(03:11):
answer I was expecting.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
But okay, yeah, I mean obviously I thought it was
needed for some time at the time. Like I said
in this article back in October, at the time of
his hire, I thought the Flyers made the right decision
in hiring him because he is known to take a
team and be able to pick it apart and find
(03:35):
out the problems, weed them out and help that team
what is left to be able to be successful, like
he did last season when the team, like we stated
so many times on the show, held a playoff position
with nobody, with nobody on the.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Roster, right, the same guys, virtually.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
The same eyes, virtually right besides Mischkoff, and they should
have been getting better with the best Flyers rookie scorer.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Since Simone gone.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Ye, he's surpassed Simone, He's surpassed Matt Reid. He's sebassed there. Yeah,
as far as points go for you know, he is
a presence in in the lineup and a force to
be reckoned with. Who was double teamed most nights, who
early on in the season was you know, physically taken
(04:35):
out of the out of every play that could and
everything like that. But you know, getting back to this,
they should have been a better team this year, and
I thought they overachieved last year for sure. You know,
hundred some games in a playoff position, one hundred days,
(04:56):
thank you, good news, one hundred plus days in a
playoff position.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Not just in a playoff position, but third right, third
like third? Yeah, right?
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Like?
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Okay, So your initial reaction was relieve. Okay, I have
to be honest. I saw the writing on the wall,
but I thought it would be at the end of
the season. I didn't think that they were gonna pull
the trigger with nine games left. I mean really, And
(05:32):
and then here's the other thing that I want to
kind of throw the wrinkle into all this, right, and
this is kind of gone back to what you said
in your article, embraced the suck, you know what I mean. Okay,
So you at the trade deadline, you didn't go for
the players that are going to help you now, you
unloaded players, right, So you weren't a buyer, you were
(05:54):
a seller. Okay. I mean I can understand why why
that was the case, you know, but you have a
coach who wants to win, you have an organization that
wants to win, you have a fan base that wants
(06:15):
to win, and you're not giving them the wins, right, Okay.
So I mean, honestly, I was a little taken aback
by the news, but I also agree with you because
I felt relieved because I saw the writing on the wall,
and I agree that it needed to happen. I just
thought it was going to happen at the end of
the season. I thought he would finish out the season
(06:36):
and then it would be that you know that Black
Monday where the Philadelphia Flyers and John Tortorella mutually agreed
to part ways, you know what I mean, Like.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Yeah, no, And that's what I agree. I wanted them
to embrace the suck, right, Yeah. They they are sellers.
They were sellers. They sold you know, they sold Theraby,
they sold everybody, you know, Lawton, and I think that
was the straw that broke the camel's back, I think
(07:08):
for Tortorello.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
And that's exactly what Danny Briere said in the press
conference today that he saw a noticeable difference in Tortorella
after the trade deadline when they especially when Scott Lawton
was traded that. I think you're right. I think that's
exactly what The straw that broke the camel's back was
(07:30):
that right there, because you traded away the heart and
soul of the Philadelphia Flyers, the emotional leader of the
Philadelphia Flyers. You traded him away.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
You know, I like Scott Lawton, But if Tortorello was
that torn up about losing Scott Lawton. You know, he's
a good leader in the locker room, He's a player
who gives us all. I'll give him all the credit
that he's due. But at the end of the day,
he's been with the Flyers for what over a twelve
(08:05):
years a dozen years or so, and and you know,
never kind of lived up to his first round pick.
You know, you know, echelon of talent that he was
supposed to be. He was a great four checker, great
penalty kill guy, but never really a leader in the
(08:29):
stats department, never really you know, you know, going to
win this team games. And if Tortorello could not see
that that trading him for what they got for him,
who is a first round pick a couple of years
from now, but fantastic young player, a Russian player. Yeah,
(08:55):
go along and play with you know, our young Russian
michigan Off, who you know, needs somebody to play with.
He can't do it all by himself. And I mean
this kid has only come in and scored power play
goal after power play goal for the Fantoms, and you
see what he brings on a nightly basis, and you
(09:15):
see that physicality and that rough edge that the Flyers
are lacking. Honestly, that made them so good for so
many years with guys like Hartnell and Wayne Simmons and
you know, a canoeble in front of the net.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
And everything like that. That was our success.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Uh. But you also had guys like teaming in and
and and even we'll go back to dejar Dan. You
had those and and even Pronger there for those couple
of seasons where you had those defensemen that were basically
the calming of the you know, when when the puck
came to their stick, the game calmed down. Everybody was like,
(09:54):
all right, we're good. You know, well that's gonna come later.
I mean that that's why they need to embrace the suck.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
I thought for the rest of the season they would
let Tortorello coach, the team continue to lose and garner
them a top five pick.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
For sure.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
They're there right now if they don't start. But they're
there right now if they don't start winning games. But
Matthew Shaffer's there. You know, they have a bunch of
other picks that they could if they win the lottery,
they could get Matthew Shaffer if they If somebody likes
another offensive guy more, maybe they could get him at
(10:35):
two or three, whatever.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
The case may be.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Move up, trade, trade up a position or two, throw
some other picks that guys to get the guy you want.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Whatever.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
But at the end of the day, we're here to
talk about Tortorello. Torderello is gone.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Right, But I want to just say that they our
good buddy. Crypto Cowboy said that Miso would be a
good selection for the Flyers, or even James Haggins would
be another good said yes, please, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
There's four guys in this draft right that can come in.
And I was talking to my dad today and told,
you know, broke the news to him about, you know, Tortorello,
and he said, good, But you know, now we're talking
about there's four guys. There's four guys and what he
said was that rightfully. So they need to draft a
(11:31):
player who will be able to play with the team
next year. And if they're drafting that high, they cannot
go through another season and not give Mishkoff another young
player to help him along the way.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
And if you look at guys like Misha who has.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
One hundred and twenty some points one hundred and twenty
four hundred and twenty five points on the season, what
else does he have to prove in juniors?
Speaker 1 (11:54):
The same thing with James Haggens.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Squared a point per game in the college and his
freshman yearye okay, on a stacked team, mind you, where
he's not even playing top line minutes because there's already
drafted talent there that that's superseding him. So the question
here is not necessarily a draft, because that is going
(12:18):
to happen. But more importantly, the Flyers have placed an
interim tag on who they had in their back of
their minds as the successor to John Tortorello.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
And I'm having to bring us back to that.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
I'm sorry, I'm not so sure that I wanted to.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
I'm not so sure I want him to be the
Flyers past these nine games.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
I would have been perfectly fine if, along with Tortorello,
they kicked out Rocky Thompson at least at the power
play and I and I think I wrote an article
on that before before this one, calling, you know, should
Mark Reki replace the Flyers coach Rocky Thompson because he
(13:06):
has more playoff or more power play goals than Wayne
Gretzky in his career. I much rather have a guy
that succeeded in the power play rather than a guy
that never set foot on the ice during a power.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Play, say even actually played on the power play. You
know what, hey, do you know what a power play is?
That usually means that you have an advantage guy over
the opposition. You understand what that means?
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Everybody needs to clear house. I think everybody needs needs
to clear house at the end of the year and.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Hire a new coach.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Which in that in this article looking for possible replacements
for Torts, I gave three I gave three guys that
I would be immediately calling at the end of the season,
at the end of their seasons about coming in for interviews.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
They better do their due diligence because I'm gonna tell
you something.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
They can't get this wrong.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
They they can't because a few shows ago I brought
this point up, and I'm gonna bring it up again.
And now it's even more important than ever now with
Tortorella being relieved of duties. Okay, and that is this.
This needs to be a Philadelphia Flyers watershed year. This
(14:32):
needs to be the year where the corner is turned.
You have capital, draft capital up the wazoo. You've got
cap space up the wazoo. Finally, okay, so you have
the capability. It's it almost feels like the six million
dollar man. By the way, for those of you that
(14:54):
don't know what the six million dollar man is, Oh yeah, right,
we can rebuild him faster, better and stronger, you know
what I mean, the world's first bionic you know, hockey team. Right,
let's do that? Can you do that? Right? Look? You
(15:15):
are running out of time, okay, how.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Says gave you patients that they haven't had previously because
they understood that this needed to be done. But it's
time to start turning the corner. In this draft. You
set yourself up. You gave everybody away that you needed to.
You've gotten rid of contracts that we didn't need. You've
(15:41):
done everything you're supposed to do, Danny Brier up to
this point. Now you've got rid of a coach that
no longer needed to be here because his coaching style
was a bit iniquated for today's youth, even a bit.
And I don't think that youth leads to that. And
still the team is one of the youngest teams in
(16:03):
the NHL. Now that they got rid of Morgan Frost,
now that they got rid of Farraby, now that they
got rid of Scott Lawton, and uh yeah, and the gods.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
The Hills, the Hills, so you know, you got rid
of him.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Now you're left with a bunch of young, talented players
that have no have no coach to that can get
across to them, or doesn't you know, I can't speak
to them in a way. So that is the sense
that I think you need to go with these three
guys that I mentioned, and I think it bears repeating.
(16:46):
Todd Nelson. Todd Nelson is the head coach of the
Hershey Bears. He's won back to back championships with them
and the previous a HL championship.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
And they already they already have a spot in the
playoffs already right now.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Right, and he's he's looking like he's gonna make it
a three peat.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Right.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Yes, he's already accumulated over four hundred wins in the
minors and now, I mean he won Coach of the
Year for the AHL last year. The Washington Capitals that
are doing very well for themselves. I don't think that
they're gonna be relieving their coach anytime soon. Why not
(17:31):
asked to interview this guy at the end of the
season and bring him in to help coach these young men. Yeah,
because obviously he has success coaching at a very young players.
I think last year still the Hershey Bears won over
seventy seven percent of their games.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Yeah, okay, yeah, another guy ran Pecknard Pechard.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
We're gonna go, We're gonna go watch him coach coach Yah,
all right at the NCAA tournament in Allentown. He'll be
coaching Quinnipiac. And yeah, he's got over he's got like
six and fifty wins as a coach, won a national championship. Okay,
(18:19):
he's a guy. Once their season is over, who I
would be calling. He's been tempted before to leave the college,
the small college that he helped build and put on
the map as far as their hockey program. He's been
there for a ridiculous amount of years and has them
(18:40):
in the playoffs every single year. And then the last
one would be Dale Hunter. And I know he owns
part of the franchise in London for the Knights.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
But and that also that's also a tie though too,
back to Keith Jones. Yes, right, And then you also
got to that he coached Oliver Bonk and Denver.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Barca, still coaching them, yes, okay, right, So and he's
won well over nine hundred games.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
At multiple championships and championships and.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Multiple championships and looking like he's well on his way
to another one.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
He's like, what three year aw now I think they are? Yeah,
something like that.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Sorry, my allergies to kill me.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Sorry, buddy.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
That's three coaches off the top of my head that
I would be calling because I don't want another recycled
NHL coach who's sixty years old, sixty five years old,
has been doing it one way for so long, has
been fired by five different teams.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
I want new blood.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
I want somebody who's able to coach youth and has
had success at it.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Okay, and look, I know what you got. I can
hear you, guys. I hear you back there screaming that
that guy back there drinking at Doctor Pepper. I can
hear you screaming. Yeah. But but they tried out with
Dave Hackxtall. Okay, but.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
Choice either.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Right, those are three coaches that that Lance has has
come up with. I don't really I mean, I don't
know if I would even consider Mike Sullivan because he's
not fired yet. But I have a feeling he's gonna
be you know what I mean, Like like Black Monday's
(20:44):
coming here for for a lot of these franchises, right,
and and Bruce is still out there. And I've also
been hearing Rick Tockett's name. If if Vancouver is not
gonna if they're not gonna make it, he might be
out and he might be available. That might be one
of the names go right to the top of the
list there, you know, for the Flyers. But regardless of
(21:07):
what happens, I agree, Lance, I think you need to
bring in some new blood. I don't care from where, when, how, Why?
You need to bring in a guy who's not a
Philadelphia guy. Okay. And the only reason why I'm saying
that is because you need somebody that can come in
(21:30):
here and continue the same type of culture that Tortorella
was trying to build. You need to continue to build
on that, because what he was trying to do was
a good thing. Okay, It's just that I think that
I think the whole issue with Torterello is that he
wanted to win and and and I think Lance the
(21:53):
team was embracing the suck, and I think that I
think that's what kind of broke the straw there for Torderella.
I mean, after three years not having a winning season,
not making the playoffs, not being able to advance or
be any better than the basement.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Well that's that's the thing with John Torderello. I mean,
he's a Jack Out Adams Award winner twice, He's won
a Stanley Cup.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
But that was when I was in high school. You
see all this gray hair. It's been quite a while,
all right.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Are you trying to say you're old? Now?
Speaker 3 (22:29):
I don't like that word either, but older than I was,
for sure.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
But he's.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
He's coached five different teams. Okay, with the Flyers, he's
had the lowest win percentage at zero point four seventy
nine of any time during his other coaching you know,
runs with the Rangers, with Blue Jackets, with Tampa Bay,
with Vancouver, and he was fired from them. Tourd of
(23:02):
relev is now a short term option. He came in.
He did what he was supposed to do. He weeded
everybody out that was cancers in the locker room. He
suggested who they should trade away. They did that. He
was able to take them last year overachieve and be
at a playoff position for quite a long time. Over
(23:24):
this course of this season, didn't manage to get in.
They traded some key guys, some defenseman got injured down
the run down the end of the season last year
and they didn't make it. In this season, you had
goaltending come in. You had a a.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Rookie of the Year candidate that Vish Cough come.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
In, and you want to call that goldtending come in?
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Really right, you know, not my choice, but whatever, and
I like, but you also got to give him somebody
to play in.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Front of too, so big time.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Yeah, So it's it goes all around. But I think
it ran its course here in Philly, just you know,
with with twarts towards it is not a guy who
who's going to be well liked, you know, and and
and be able to stay around. He's harsh. Uh, he
(24:25):
will sit guys. I don't like what he was doing
with Mishkoff. You don't sit a Rookie of the Year candidate.
If he's having defensive issues, that's one thing. But when
there's only one guy on your whole team who's a
plus player, it's kind of hard to get on him
(24:46):
so much when everybody on the team is making defensive
mistakes and not doing not playing defensively sound games themselves.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
He's not the only one.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Okay, he's not the only one not toeing the line
and that aspect, So why sit a guy who's who's
putting up, you know, the amount of points he's putting
up as a rookie. At least he's contributing one way,
you know.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
And and you can definitely you know, practice and have
him run different drills. But I don't see sitting him.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
I think that can.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Ruin especially during game.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Yeah, especially during Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
You don't do that during a game. I mean, unless
the guy really makes a horrible mistake. But then even
then you don't You only see him for a minute,
and then you're putting back out there because you've got
to get back out on the horse, right, you know
what I mean? And and he look, let's face it,
the Philadelpia Flyers are a better hockey team with Mitchkoff
on the ice, not on the bench or in the
(25:50):
press box. Yeah, or in the press box. Right, So
what do you do? You know what I mean? Okay,
So let me throw this one sing here for you.
There's nine games left. We got the interim tag on Bradshaw.
I just want to be clear about something here, folks.
(26:12):
If you're gonna clear out Tortorella, then you should clear
out the entire bench. Everybody behind that bench deserves to
be fired, none of those guys. Look if any one
of us, Okay, we're hired to do a job and
we were not able to produce even at minimum levels
for three years, do you honestly think we would still
(26:35):
have that job? Okay, three years in a row, Rocky
Thompson in charge of the power play, and three years
in a row, the Philadelphia Flyers are dead. Bloody last.
All right, I'm sorry they're not last, but thirtieth. Well, gee,
there's only two more teams that are worse than you. Well, gosh,
(26:57):
that's Look. If you want to do anything playoffs, and
I'm gonna use the old Jim Moore playoffs. Right, if
you want to do anything playoffs, you gotta have a
power play that can at least score, you know, twenty
five percent of the time. Maybe you gotta be at
(27:20):
least middle of the road, right, you gotta at least
be there for the power play. I don't know what
this guy was doing, but he wasn't coaching the power
play because he obviously didn't get the concept of man advantage,
you know what I mean. Like they they never looked
like they were prepared. They more than happy to dump
(27:44):
and chase on a power play instead of skating it in.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
What kind of philosophy is that antiquated? Antiquated who turns
over the puck? In the NHL where you got guys
like Conn David on the other side of the ice
that can skate it up in a heartbeat and make you,
you know, regret that mistake when you're trying to change
(28:10):
lines real quick. You should never turn over the puck
on purpose or dump and chase and hopes to get
it back when you already had control of it.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
It's just crazy. And imagine this, misch cough.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
There's Flyers of Plane right now, misch Coff has a
goal and assist without Tortorello in his ear yelling at
him telling him he sucks.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
So imagine that.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
And you know what, here's what's going to end up happening. Right.
This is going to be the horrible thing about all this,
right because they're not going to embrace the suck and
they're like, well, we got a lot to play for,
and you have to play for the next guy because
the next guy has to play for his contract and
his his career and blah blah blah blah blah blah.
We need to play for each other. All right, cool? Great,
(28:54):
but really do you need to win because if you win,
you get really much worst draft picks, and now you
have to give up way more to get a higher
draft pick, and you need one of these players at
least to let the fan base know that you're trying.
(29:19):
You haven't been able to draft very well in the
last few years, right, We Flyers have not hit on
too many players and filling the roster with a bunch
of Scott Laws is not going to win.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
You a cup.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Yeah, the look, all you have to do is look
at the product on the ice. All you have to
do is look, it's what's happened the last three years,
because virtually it's been the same team minus Carter Hard
and you know, a couple of guys here or there.
But you mean to tell me that you're pretty much
putting out ninety five percent of the same team that
(29:59):
you had to last three years and you can't do
anything with it.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Yeah, it'll be interesting to see. Hopefully they continue to
embrace the suck and we just continue to lose this season.
Get a top draft pick, get Mitchkoff some help. Yeah,
use cap space that they do have. Wisely, don't sign
(30:28):
people too ungodly contracts that they're going to be playing
to forty five years old, like they did when they
signed Couturier and overpaid him.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
Good grief.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Yeah, but but you know what I mean, Yeah, but
you know what the lands. I gotta be honest with you,
though you wrote these articles, you have the the you
have that vision, you you have that foresight, you're able
to see. We were talking about stuff long before things
(31:05):
were happening. And I remember two years ago we were
talking about, man, they need to get or you know,
I'm sorry three years ago and we were talking about
they need to get rid of Fletcher, they need to
get rid of Fletcher. Finally they got rid of Fletcher
and blah blah blah blah. But you know what I mean.
It's like, but we were talking about that like months
before they were doing it. It just seems like the
(31:28):
Flyers always just seemed to be that stuck with the check,
you know, like you had a chance and you got
Patrick Nolan and that didn't turn out, you know, and
you had a couple of good, decent first round picks
and they they turned out to be good professional hockey players.
(31:52):
But that's about all you.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
Got, yeah Nolan, Patrick, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
And you haven't made the playoffs in how many years
in a row? That's just unheard of in Philadelphia. What
do you mean you haven't made the playoffs? What?
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Well?
Speaker 2 (32:06):
On a good note, m with seasons ending, jet Lichenko
just arrived in Lehigh.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
Uh, so we have that to look forward to.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
The Phantoms have been doing really well. They have been
playing really, really well. Man. They have been taking it
to the teams. I mean there's still fifth I think
in the in their division, but they take the top
seven teams. So as long as they stay where they're at,
(32:40):
they're making the playoffs this year. Yeah, how about.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
That, guys.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Yeah, to make a playoff run, get them that experience
as professional athletes now, and I think I think it's
only going to be good. I think that Danny Beer
has to look at that team at the end of
the season and weed out some of the guys that
have been there a little too long and have not progressed.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
Because well, I.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Mean that that was a Bault contract to get a
deal done to get certain players out. But I'm talking
about our own players that we drafted that have been
stuck there for three, four or five seasons now and
have not progressed.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
Great, Hey, you're HL athlete.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
That is cool. I mean I wish I could be
playing professional hockey. You know, I never got the chance to.
Was not talented enough, my knees blew out, whatever the
case may be of both all the above, and.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
I'm not there.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
But we have far too much draft capital. Like Steele
said to keep having these players returned and not try
to get better in the sense of signing our own,
our own draft picks and other free agents college free
agents that they should be drafting as well.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Like the article I wrote recently.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
And Top Prospect Watch and check that out.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
Just came out.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Yeah, the show just came out, and there's also an
article now tonight. But doing that due diligence as well,
and clearing house down there to make room for all
the draft picks that he has made and is going
to make with this next draft and bring in our
own guys so that Ian Leperier and Jason Smith and
(34:41):
everybody else that is good minor league coaches that are
getting these guys ready to hopefully be Philadelphia Flyers one
day like they have with Ema Landre and others, and
you know, relieve them some space to bring in some
new players. I think that's gonna happen too.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
At this season.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
You've got a clear house and you have to hit
in this draft. You have to hit in this draft.
It is time, like Steele said, to turn that corner
and start the rebuild and start bringing in you You.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
Got it all torn down. You got it torn down.
It can't get.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
Start building the blocks back up, and and you know,
you got your cornerstone in Mishkoff. I believe you got
your corner. Okay, he's going to be the face of
the franchise, but he needs somebody else to go with him.
And like I said in other articles before, you know,
(35:44):
the Penguins, they weren't just good when they got Marc
Andre Fleure. They and they weren't that good until they
got Malcolm, until they got Crosby, until they got La
Tang and then they became a monster team. Chicago was
and you know the team that they were until they
got Kane and Tabes to go to go along.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Tampa Bay wasn't that great.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
And you know, four or five different players together from
the drafts, Stamkost and everybody else that's been there forever
before that you know that uh, that nucleus came along
and they won multiple championships.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
All you have to do is look at Joe Sachek
and the Colorado Avalanche. That team was completely built mostly
from the draft and then with some good free agents
that he was able to trade and get and get
draft capital, and then a.
Speaker 3 (36:38):
Couple established you know veterans and I.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
Mean you know, yeah, I mean the the blueprint is
out there for how to do it. Okay, you just
need to do it. And and you need to be
able to use that draft capital to move to a
spot where you can select a player that can play
on the team next year. Yes, I don't care who
(37:02):
it is. Pick one, I don't care. You need center.
Pick a center. I mean there's two or three.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
Yeah, there's about there's about two or three, maybe four
within that top ten really good center right here, there's
probably two or three that I said two or three.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Pick one. Take all that draft capital you got. Don't
pile it all into one, Okay, Don't don't pull a
mic Dick and go like, yeah, I'm just gonna pile
all my draft picks and pick you know one player. No,
don't do that. But package it up and and and
put you know, Nick Delarus on it or or you know,
(37:50):
wrist the line and on it or something, and get
rid of that ugly contracts too, and and get the
guy that you need that's gonna be an impact player. Okay,
because I believe you're going to see Jetlchenko make the
team next year. That's going to be another piece that's
going to be able to slot in. Okay, So so
(38:11):
you're slowly starting to put together guys.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
You know what I mean, other youthful.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Position player that is going to need a good coach
that can teach youth, not a sixty five year old
guy who's been coaching in the pros for the past
twenty years and doesn't know how to you know, communicate
to the day's players. Because the game is getting younger
(38:38):
and younger and younger and faster and faster and faster.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
Yep, you and you got to be able to roll
with it. You got to be able to roll with it. Well,
I'll tell you what here, folks, we had to come
out and do this special edition for the Hockey Writers, Inc.
John Tornobella was relieved of duties from the Philadelphia Flyers
on March twenty seventh, twenty twenty five. Holy smokes, he
did not see that coming at this time. We saw
(39:03):
it coming, just not right at the moment with you know.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
I saw it coming five months ago when I said
it right, right, right, right, But you know, not crazy.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
When I said that back then.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
Yeah, but we thought maybe that might even happen sooner
or even you know, at the end of the season,
not not with nine games left. But with that being said,
if I can use the term that Lance so definitely
uses in his articles, which, speaking of which, you need
to hop on over to steel Flyers dot com and
check out Lance's latest articles. Number one a Embrace the Suck.
(39:35):
You got to go check that out. Number two. You
also got to check out the NCAA free agents that
need to be looked at by other NHL teams, including
the Flyers, that will be available right now. They weren't drafted,
but they're pretty good players that from college that they
should be taking a look at. Other teams are starting
to do that right now as college, uh you know,
(39:57):
seasons wrap up, those players are going to be available
and there'll be great additions to their team, even if
it's on an AHL level, which the Flyers need help
with that as well too.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
So and all right, we're telling the games this weekend
up and owntown telling get out to see some good
collegiate hockey. The NCAA tournament is coming to Allentown, the
Phantom's home rink. Make a trip up there go see
(40:28):
this hockey games. I think there's you know, gonna be
three or four games that two tomorrow night, and then
you know, after that, yeah, so and.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
Then whoever wins that game gets to be one of
the Frozen four. Right. So there's regionals in in three
other regions besides Allentown, Right, there's there's two out West
and the other ones up in Boston. Right. But Lance
is right, they're gonna be on ESPN two. But make
(41:04):
the trip down to downtown and watch some really really
good hockey. You're gonna see Penn State play against Maine
at the lake game, and you're gonna see uh Yukon
play against Quinnipiac on the early game. And that's right, folks,
yours truly meaning Lance and I will be covering the
(41:25):
NCAA tournament down there. That's right, folks. We'll be down
there covering those games. How about that, We'll.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
Be walking around the concourse. Come say hi, it's a
beautiful rink, it's not a bad not a bad seat
in the house, good food down there.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
Yeah, so for sure, for sure, al Antony, anything in
the works.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
No, I'm pretty focused on going to see this tournament
be played out.
Speaker 3 (41:53):
And yeah, yeah, yeah, and yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Just just happy things are still moving in the direction
with Torteolla being fired, and you know, some of our
younger prospects coming up, and I think maybe do a
wrap up on some of some of our prospects in
the next couple of weeks and kind of let you
(42:19):
know how their seasons are ending. A lot of them
are in playoffs and right now in different leagues all
around the world, so they'll be wrapping up their seasons
and we'll see.
Speaker 1 (42:32):
Yeah, and I'm excited. This is a really good time
of year because not only do you get playoff hockey
for the lower levels, but you start getting playoff hockey
for the NHL. And we all know how exciting the
second season is, right, you know what I mean? So,
and what the Fantom's doing really well, they're they're trying
to punch their ticket to a playoff berth as well too.
(42:53):
So you know we might be able to get to
go cover a Phantoms playoff game. Wouldn't that be cool? Right? Hey? Hey, hey,
all right, big thank you to mister Bob Road Truck
for hooking us up with the application to get the
media credentials for the NCAA tournament. It was because of
(43:14):
you and your assistant Connor. Really appreciate you guys helping
us out getting us that information so we could do
the application. Our application was approved and we're gonna get
to go cover the game as media, so we're both
excited about that and we can't wait. And man, i'll
tell you what, I think the Flyers are really embracing
the rebuild for sure with Torderella being fired. And I'll
(43:38):
tell you what, folks, We will catch you all on
the next episode of The Hockey Writers, Inc.
Welcome to The Hockey Writer's Inc. The show where the
writer is fresh off the presses and the ink is
not dry, relaxed, the keyboard is off and the press
boxes closed, with the mic is just getting warmed up.
Join your host Lance Green, the guardian of the blue
paint turned writer, and your co host Ron Steele Flyers
as we bring you all the latest on the Philadelphia Flyers.
(00:41):
Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to the next episode of The
Hockey Writers, Inc. With your host Lan Screen.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
All right, guys, some big news out of Philadelphia today.
Wows right still, I mean I was not expecting that.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Now. I don't think anybody will well, let's just say this.
I don't think anybody outside of the Comcast Spectacor Center
was expecting this at all. But ladies and gentlemen, Tortorella
has been relieved of duties from the Philadelphia Flyers. And
first of all, before we get started, if you like
(01:19):
what we do, please with the like and subscribe. Man.
We really appreciate that, and we really thank you for that.
Welcome to the Hockey Writers Think of Philadelphia Flyers Centric podcast.
And I got to tell you something, folks. We got major, major,
News special Edition Breaking News. Tortorella has been relieved of
(01:42):
duties from the Philadelphia Flyers and Bradshaw has been hired
as an interim coach. Lance, you put out an article
just the other day about embracing the suck and then
what was it back in October?
Speaker 3 (01:59):
October?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Rightwen?
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Actually, yes, Halloween?
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Right, you released another article about should management be looking
for a replacement for Tortorella? That was back in October
of twenty twenty four. There, folks, it's like this guy
knows man, you know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Like I was called crazy at the time.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
You knew Cortorella was the savior and that he was
the best coach for the job.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
And I was part of that train. I honestly, I
was part of that train. I always back you, Lance,
sometimes we agree to disagree, but I really thought, Okay,
he's gonna see us through. I thought that he was
going to be the guy. But nope, the Savant came through.
You know, the Batman and Robin of Philadelphia Flyers podcast
(02:50):
already had this pegged out. Lance was already all over
that way back in October. So okay, your initial thought
that hit your mind when you first saw that Totebella
was let go what was the first thing and hit
your minds relief? Wow, all right, that was not the
(03:11):
answer I was expecting.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
But okay, yeah, I mean obviously I thought it was
needed for some time at the time. Like I said
in this article back in October, at the time of
his hire, I thought the Flyers made the right decision
in hiring him because he is known to take a
team and be able to pick it apart and find
(03:35):
out the problems, weed them out and help that team
what is left to be able to be successful, like
he did last season when the team, like we stated
so many times on the show, held a playoff position
with nobody, with nobody on the.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Roster, right, the same guys, virtually.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
The same eyes, virtually right besides Mischkoff, and they should
have been getting better with the best Flyers rookie scorer.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Since Simone gone.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Ye, he's surpassed Simone, He's surpassed Matt Reid. He's sebassed there. Yeah,
as far as points go for you know, he is
a presence in in the lineup and a force to
be reckoned with. Who was double teamed most nights, who
early on in the season was you know, physically taken
(04:35):
out of the out of every play that could and
everything like that. But you know, getting back to this,
they should have been a better team this year, and
I thought they overachieved last year for sure. You know,
hundred some games in a playoff position, one hundred days,
(04:56):
thank you, good news, one hundred plus days in a
playoff position.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Not just in a playoff position, but third right, third
like third? Yeah, right?
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Like?
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Okay, So your initial reaction was relieve. Okay, I have
to be honest. I saw the writing on the wall,
but I thought it would be at the end of
the season. I didn't think that they were gonna pull
the trigger with nine games left. I mean really, And
(05:32):
and then here's the other thing that I want to
kind of throw the wrinkle into all this, right, and
this is kind of gone back to what you said
in your article, embraced the suck, you know what I mean. Okay,
So you at the trade deadline, you didn't go for
the players that are going to help you now, you
unloaded players, right, So you weren't a buyer, you were
(05:54):
a seller. Okay. I mean I can understand why why
that was the case, you know, but you have a
coach who wants to win, you have an organization that
wants to win, you have a fan base that wants
(06:15):
to win, and you're not giving them the wins, right, Okay.
So I mean, honestly, I was a little taken aback
by the news, but I also agree with you because
I felt relieved because I saw the writing on the wall,
and I agree that it needed to happen. I just
thought it was going to happen at the end of
the season. I thought he would finish out the season
(06:36):
and then it would be that you know that Black
Monday where the Philadelphia Flyers and John Tortorella mutually agreed
to part ways, you know what I mean, Like.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Yeah, no, And that's what I agree. I wanted them
to embrace the suck, right, Yeah. They they are sellers.
They were sellers. They sold you know, they sold Theraby,
they sold everybody, you know, Lawton, and I think that
was the straw that broke the camel's back, I think
(07:08):
for Tortorello.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
And that's exactly what Danny Briere said in the press
conference today that he saw a noticeable difference in Tortorella
after the trade deadline when they especially when Scott Lawton
was traded that. I think you're right. I think that's
exactly what The straw that broke the camel's back was
(07:30):
that right there, because you traded away the heart and
soul of the Philadelphia Flyers, the emotional leader of the
Philadelphia Flyers. You traded him away.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
You know, I like Scott Lawton, But if Tortorello was
that torn up about losing Scott Lawton. You know, he's
a good leader in the locker room, He's a player
who gives us all. I'll give him all the credit
that he's due. But at the end of the day,
he's been with the Flyers for what over a twelve
(08:05):
years a dozen years or so, and and you know,
never kind of lived up to his first round pick.
You know, you know, echelon of talent that he was
supposed to be. He was a great four checker, great
penalty kill guy, but never really a leader in the
(08:29):
stats department, never really you know, you know, going to
win this team games. And if Tortorello could not see
that that trading him for what they got for him,
who is a first round pick a couple of years
from now, but fantastic young player, a Russian player. Yeah,
(08:55):
go along and play with you know, our young Russian
michigan Off, who you know, needs somebody to play with.
He can't do it all by himself. And I mean
this kid has only come in and scored power play
goal after power play goal for the Fantoms, and you
see what he brings on a nightly basis, and you
(09:15):
see that physicality and that rough edge that the Flyers
are lacking. Honestly, that made them so good for so
many years with guys like Hartnell and Wayne Simmons and
you know, a canoeble in front of the net.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
And everything like that. That was our success.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Uh. But you also had guys like teaming in and
and and even we'll go back to dejar Dan. You
had those and and even Pronger there for those couple
of seasons where you had those defensemen that were basically
the calming of the you know, when when the puck
came to their stick, the game calmed down. Everybody was like,
(09:54):
all right, we're good. You know, well that's gonna come later.
I mean that that's why they need to embrace the suck.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
I thought for the rest of the season they would
let Tortorello coach, the team continue to lose and garner
them a top five pick.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
For sure.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
They're there right now if they don't start. But they're
there right now if they don't start winning games. But
Matthew Shaffer's there. You know, they have a bunch of
other picks that they could if they win the lottery,
they could get Matthew Shaffer if they If somebody likes
another offensive guy more, maybe they could get him at
(10:35):
two or three, whatever.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
The case may be.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Move up, trade, trade up a position or two, throw
some other picks that guys to get the guy you want.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Whatever.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
But at the end of the day, we're here to
talk about Tortorello. Torderello is gone.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Right, But I want to just say that they our
good buddy. Crypto Cowboy said that Miso would be a
good selection for the Flyers, or even James Haggins would
be another good said yes, please, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
There's four guys in this draft right that can come in.
And I was talking to my dad today and told,
you know, broke the news to him about, you know, Tortorello,
and he said, good, But you know, now we're talking
about there's four guys. There's four guys and what he
said was that rightfully. So they need to draft a
(11:31):
player who will be able to play with the team
next year. And if they're drafting that high, they cannot
go through another season and not give Mishkoff another young
player to help him along the way.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
And if you look at guys like Misha who has.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
One hundred and twenty some points one hundred and twenty
four hundred and twenty five points on the season, what
else does he have to prove in juniors?
Speaker 1 (11:54):
The same thing with James Haggens.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Squared a point per game in the college and his
freshman yearye okay, on a stacked team, mind you, where
he's not even playing top line minutes because there's already
drafted talent there that that's superseding him. So the question
here is not necessarily a draft, because that is going
(12:18):
to happen. But more importantly, the Flyers have placed an
interim tag on who they had in their back of
their minds as the successor to John Tortorello.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
And I'm having to bring us back to that.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
I'm sorry, I'm not so sure that I wanted to.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
I'm not so sure I want him to be the
Flyers past these nine games.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
I would have been perfectly fine if, along with Tortorello,
they kicked out Rocky Thompson at least at the power
play and I and I think I wrote an article
on that before before this one, calling, you know, should
Mark Reki replace the Flyers coach Rocky Thompson because he
(13:06):
has more playoff or more power play goals than Wayne
Gretzky in his career. I much rather have a guy
that succeeded in the power play rather than a guy
that never set foot on the ice during a power.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Play, say even actually played on the power play. You
know what, hey, do you know what a power play is?
That usually means that you have an advantage guy over
the opposition. You understand what that means?
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Everybody needs to clear house. I think everybody needs needs
to clear house at the end of the year and.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Hire a new coach.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Which in that in this article looking for possible replacements
for Torts, I gave three I gave three guys that
I would be immediately calling at the end of the season,
at the end of their seasons about coming in for interviews.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
They better do their due diligence because I'm gonna tell
you something.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
They can't get this wrong.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
They they can't because a few shows ago I brought
this point up, and I'm gonna bring it up again.
And now it's even more important than ever now with
Tortorella being relieved of duties. Okay, and that is this.
This needs to be a Philadelphia Flyers watershed year. This
(14:32):
needs to be the year where the corner is turned.
You have capital, draft capital up the wazoo. You've got
cap space up the wazoo. Finally, okay, so you have
the capability. It's it almost feels like the six million
dollar man. By the way, for those of you that
(14:54):
don't know what the six million dollar man is, Oh yeah, right,
we can rebuild him faster, better and stronger, you know
what I mean, the world's first bionic you know, hockey team. Right,
let's do that? Can you do that? Right? Look? You
(15:15):
are running out of time, okay, how.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Says gave you patients that they haven't had previously because
they understood that this needed to be done. But it's
time to start turning the corner. In this draft. You
set yourself up. You gave everybody away that you needed to.
You've gotten rid of contracts that we didn't need. You've
(15:41):
done everything you're supposed to do, Danny Brier up to
this point. Now you've got rid of a coach that
no longer needed to be here because his coaching style
was a bit iniquated for today's youth, even a bit.
And I don't think that youth leads to that. And
still the team is one of the youngest teams in
(16:03):
the NHL. Now that they got rid of Morgan Frost,
now that they got rid of Farraby, now that they
got rid of Scott Lawton, and uh yeah, and the gods.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
The Hills, the Hills, so you know, you got rid
of him.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Now you're left with a bunch of young, talented players
that have no have no coach to that can get
across to them, or doesn't you know, I can't speak
to them in a way. So that is the sense
that I think you need to go with these three
guys that I mentioned, and I think it bears repeating.
(16:46):
Todd Nelson. Todd Nelson is the head coach of the
Hershey Bears. He's won back to back championships with them
and the previous a HL championship.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
And they already they already have a spot in the
playoffs already right now.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Right, and he's he's looking like he's gonna make it
a three peat.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Right.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Yes, he's already accumulated over four hundred wins in the
minors and now, I mean he won Coach of the
Year for the AHL last year. The Washington Capitals that
are doing very well for themselves. I don't think that
they're gonna be relieving their coach anytime soon. Why not
(17:31):
asked to interview this guy at the end of the
season and bring him in to help coach these young men. Yeah,
because obviously he has success coaching at a very young players.
I think last year still the Hershey Bears won over
seventy seven percent of their games.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Yeah, okay, yeah, another guy ran Pecknard Pechard.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
We're gonna go, We're gonna go watch him coach coach Yah,
all right at the NCAA tournament in Allentown. He'll be
coaching Quinnipiac. And yeah, he's got over he's got like
six and fifty wins as a coach, won a national championship. Okay,
(18:19):
he's a guy. Once their season is over, who I
would be calling. He's been tempted before to leave the college,
the small college that he helped build and put on
the map as far as their hockey program. He's been
there for a ridiculous amount of years and has them
(18:40):
in the playoffs every single year. And then the last
one would be Dale Hunter. And I know he owns
part of the franchise in London for the Knights.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
But and that also that's also a tie though too,
back to Keith Jones. Yes, right, And then you also
got to that he coached Oliver Bonk and Denver.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Barca, still coaching them, yes, okay, right, So and he's
won well over nine hundred games.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
At multiple championships and championships and.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Multiple championships and looking like he's well on his way
to another one.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
He's like, what three year aw now I think they are? Yeah,
something like that.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Sorry, my allergies to kill me.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Sorry, buddy.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
That's three coaches off the top of my head that
I would be calling because I don't want another recycled
NHL coach who's sixty years old, sixty five years old,
has been doing it one way for so long, has
been fired by five different teams.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
I want new blood.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
I want somebody who's able to coach youth and has
had success at it.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Okay, and look, I know what you got. I can
hear you, guys. I hear you back there screaming that
that guy back there drinking at Doctor Pepper. I can
hear you screaming. Yeah. But but they tried out with
Dave Hackxtall. Okay, but.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
Choice either.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Right, those are three coaches that that Lance has has
come up with. I don't really I mean, I don't
know if I would even consider Mike Sullivan because he's
not fired yet. But I have a feeling he's gonna
be you know what I mean, Like like Black Monday's
(20:44):
coming here for for a lot of these franchises, right,
and and Bruce is still out there. And I've also
been hearing Rick Tockett's name. If if Vancouver is not
gonna if they're not gonna make it, he might be
out and he might be available. That might be one
of the names go right to the top of the
list there, you know, for the Flyers. But regardless of
(21:07):
what happens, I agree, Lance, I think you need to
bring in some new blood. I don't care from where, when, how, Why?
You need to bring in a guy who's not a
Philadelphia guy. Okay. And the only reason why I'm saying
that is because you need somebody that can come in
(21:30):
here and continue the same type of culture that Tortorella
was trying to build. You need to continue to build
on that, because what he was trying to do was
a good thing. Okay, It's just that I think that
I think the whole issue with Torterello is that he
wanted to win and and and I think Lance the
(21:53):
team was embracing the suck, and I think that I
think that's what kind of broke the straw there for Torderella.
I mean, after three years not having a winning season,
not making the playoffs, not being able to advance or
be any better than the basement.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Well that's that's the thing with John Torderello. I mean,
he's a Jack Out Adams Award winner twice, He's won
a Stanley Cup.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
But that was when I was in high school. You
see all this gray hair. It's been quite a while,
all right.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Are you trying to say you're old? Now?
Speaker 3 (22:29):
I don't like that word either, but older than I was,
for sure.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
But he's.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
He's coached five different teams. Okay, with the Flyers, he's
had the lowest win percentage at zero point four seventy
nine of any time during his other coaching you know,
runs with the Rangers, with Blue Jackets, with Tampa Bay,
with Vancouver, and he was fired from them. Tourd of
(23:02):
relev is now a short term option. He came in.
He did what he was supposed to do. He weeded
everybody out that was cancers in the locker room. He
suggested who they should trade away. They did that. He
was able to take them last year overachieve and be
at a playoff position for quite a long time. Over
(23:24):
this course of this season, didn't manage to get in.
They traded some key guys, some defenseman got injured down
the run down the end of the season last year
and they didn't make it. In this season, you had
goaltending come in. You had a a.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Rookie of the Year candidate that Vish Cough come.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
In, and you want to call that goldtending come in?
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Really right, you know, not my choice, but whatever, and
I like, but you also got to give him somebody
to play in.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Front of too, so big time.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Yeah, So it's it goes all around. But I think
it ran its course here in Philly, just you know,
with with twarts towards it is not a guy who
who's going to be well liked, you know, and and
and be able to stay around. He's harsh. Uh, he
(24:25):
will sit guys. I don't like what he was doing
with Mishkoff. You don't sit a Rookie of the Year candidate.
If he's having defensive issues, that's one thing. But when
there's only one guy on your whole team who's a
plus player, it's kind of hard to get on him
(24:46):
so much when everybody on the team is making defensive
mistakes and not doing not playing defensively sound games themselves.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
He's not the only one.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Okay, he's not the only one not toeing the line
and that aspect, So why sit a guy who's who's
putting up, you know, the amount of points he's putting
up as a rookie. At least he's contributing one way,
you know.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
And and you can definitely you know, practice and have
him run different drills. But I don't see sitting him.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
I think that can.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Ruin especially during game.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Yeah, especially during Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
You don't do that during a game. I mean, unless
the guy really makes a horrible mistake. But then even
then you don't You only see him for a minute,
and then you're putting back out there because you've got
to get back out on the horse, right, you know
what I mean? And and he look, let's face it,
the Philadelpia Flyers are a better hockey team with Mitchkoff
on the ice, not on the bench or in the
(25:50):
press box. Yeah, or in the press box. Right, So
what do you do? You know what I mean? Okay,
So let me throw this one sing here for you.
There's nine games left. We got the interim tag on Bradshaw.
I just want to be clear about something here, folks.
(26:12):
If you're gonna clear out Tortorella, then you should clear
out the entire bench. Everybody behind that bench deserves to
be fired, none of those guys. Look if any one
of us, Okay, we're hired to do a job and
we were not able to produce even at minimum levels
for three years, do you honestly think we would still
(26:35):
have that job? Okay, three years in a row, Rocky
Thompson in charge of the power play, and three years
in a row, the Philadelphia Flyers are dead. Bloody last.
All right, I'm sorry they're not last, but thirtieth. Well, gee,
there's only two more teams that are worse than you. Well, gosh,
(26:57):
that's Look. If you want to do anything playoffs, and
I'm gonna use the old Jim Moore playoffs. Right, if
you want to do anything playoffs, you gotta have a
power play that can at least score, you know, twenty
five percent of the time. Maybe you gotta be at
(27:20):
least middle of the road, right, you gotta at least
be there for the power play. I don't know what
this guy was doing, but he wasn't coaching the power
play because he obviously didn't get the concept of man advantage,
you know what I mean. Like they they never looked
like they were prepared. They more than happy to dump
(27:44):
and chase on a power play instead of skating it in.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
What kind of philosophy is that antiquated? Antiquated who turns
over the puck? In the NHL where you got guys
like Conn David on the other side of the ice
that can skate it up in a heartbeat and make you,
you know, regret that mistake when you're trying to change
(28:10):
lines real quick. You should never turn over the puck
on purpose or dump and chase and hopes to get
it back when you already had control of it.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
It's just crazy. And imagine this, misch cough.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
There's Flyers of Plane right now, misch Coff has a
goal and assist without Tortorello in his ear yelling at
him telling him he sucks.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
So imagine that.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
And you know what, here's what's going to end up happening. Right.
This is going to be the horrible thing about all this,
right because they're not going to embrace the suck and
they're like, well, we got a lot to play for,
and you have to play for the next guy because
the next guy has to play for his contract and
his his career and blah blah blah blah blah blah.
We need to play for each other. All right, cool? Great,
(28:54):
but really do you need to win because if you win,
you get really much worst draft picks, and now you
have to give up way more to get a higher
draft pick, and you need one of these players at
least to let the fan base know that you're trying.
(29:19):
You haven't been able to draft very well in the
last few years, right, We Flyers have not hit on
too many players and filling the roster with a bunch
of Scott Laws is not going to win.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
You a cup.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Yeah, the look, all you have to do is look
at the product on the ice. All you have to
do is look, it's what's happened the last three years,
because virtually it's been the same team minus Carter Hard
and you know, a couple of guys here or there.
But you mean to tell me that you're pretty much
putting out ninety five percent of the same team that
(29:59):
you had to last three years and you can't do
anything with it.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Yeah, it'll be interesting to see. Hopefully they continue to
embrace the suck and we just continue to lose this season.
Get a top draft pick, get Mitchkoff some help. Yeah,
use cap space that they do have. Wisely, don't sign
(30:28):
people too ungodly contracts that they're going to be playing
to forty five years old, like they did when they
signed Couturier and overpaid him.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
Good grief.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Yeah, but but you know what I mean, Yeah, but
you know what the lands. I gotta be honest with you,
though you wrote these articles, you have the the you
have that vision, you you have that foresight, you're able
to see. We were talking about stuff long before things
(31:05):
were happening. And I remember two years ago we were
talking about, man, they need to get or you know,
I'm sorry three years ago and we were talking about
they need to get rid of Fletcher, they need to
get rid of Fletcher. Finally they got rid of Fletcher
and blah blah blah blah. But you know what I mean.
It's like, but we were talking about that like months
before they were doing it. It just seems like the
(31:28):
Flyers always just seemed to be that stuck with the check,
you know, like you had a chance and you got
Patrick Nolan and that didn't turn out, you know, and
you had a couple of good, decent first round picks
and they they turned out to be good professional hockey players.
(31:52):
But that's about all you.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
Got, yeah Nolan, Patrick, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
And you haven't made the playoffs in how many years
in a row? That's just unheard of in Philadelphia. What
do you mean you haven't made the playoffs? What?
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Well?
Speaker 2 (32:06):
On a good note, m with seasons ending, jet Lichenko
just arrived in Lehigh.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
Uh, so we have that to look forward to.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
The Phantoms have been doing really well. They have been
playing really, really well. Man. They have been taking it
to the teams. I mean there's still fifth I think
in the in their division, but they take the top
seven teams. So as long as they stay where they're at,
(32:40):
they're making the playoffs this year. Yeah, how about.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
That, guys.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Yeah, to make a playoff run, get them that experience
as professional athletes now, and I think I think it's
only going to be good. I think that Danny Beer
has to look at that team at the end of
the season and weed out some of the guys that
have been there a little too long and have not progressed.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
Because well, I.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Mean that that was a Bault contract to get a
deal done to get certain players out. But I'm talking
about our own players that we drafted that have been
stuck there for three, four or five seasons now and
have not progressed.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
Great, Hey, you're HL athlete.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
That is cool. I mean I wish I could be
playing professional hockey. You know, I never got the chance to.
Was not talented enough, my knees blew out, whatever the
case may be of both all the above, and.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
I'm not there.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
But we have far too much draft capital. Like Steele
said to keep having these players returned and not try
to get better in the sense of signing our own,
our own draft picks and other free agents college free
agents that they should be drafting as well.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Like the article I wrote recently.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
And Top Prospect Watch and check that out.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
Just came out.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Yeah, the show just came out, and there's also an
article now tonight. But doing that due diligence as well,
and clearing house down there to make room for all
the draft picks that he has made and is going
to make with this next draft and bring in our
own guys so that Ian Leperier and Jason Smith and
(34:41):
everybody else that is good minor league coaches that are
getting these guys ready to hopefully be Philadelphia Flyers one
day like they have with Ema Landre and others, and
you know, relieve them some space to bring in some
new players. I think that's gonna happen too.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
At this season.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
You've got a clear house and you have to hit
in this draft. You have to hit in this draft.
It is time, like Steele said, to turn that corner
and start the rebuild and start bringing in you You.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
Got it all torn down. You got it torn down.
It can't get.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
Start building the blocks back up, and and you know,
you got your cornerstone in Mishkoff. I believe you got
your corner. Okay, he's going to be the face of
the franchise, but he needs somebody else to go with him.
And like I said in other articles before, you know,
(35:44):
the Penguins, they weren't just good when they got Marc
Andre Fleure. They and they weren't that good until they
got Malcolm, until they got Crosby, until they got La
Tang and then they became a monster team. Chicago was
and you know the team that they were until they
got Kane and Tabes to go to go along.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Tampa Bay wasn't that great.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
And you know, four or five different players together from
the drafts, Stamkost and everybody else that's been there forever
before that you know that uh, that nucleus came along
and they won multiple championships.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
All you have to do is look at Joe Sachek
and the Colorado Avalanche. That team was completely built mostly
from the draft and then with some good free agents
that he was able to trade and get and get
draft capital, and then a.
Speaker 3 (36:38):
Couple established you know veterans and I.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
Mean you know, yeah, I mean the the blueprint is
out there for how to do it. Okay, you just
need to do it. And and you need to be
able to use that draft capital to move to a
spot where you can select a player that can play
on the team next year. Yes, I don't care who
(37:02):
it is. Pick one, I don't care. You need center.
Pick a center. I mean there's two or three.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
Yeah, there's about there's about two or three, maybe four
within that top ten really good center right here, there's
probably two or three that I said two or three.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Pick one. Take all that draft capital you got. Don't
pile it all into one, Okay, Don't don't pull a
mic Dick and go like, yeah, I'm just gonna pile
all my draft picks and pick you know one player. No,
don't do that. But package it up and and and
put you know, Nick Delarus on it or or you know,
(37:50):
wrist the line and on it or something, and get
rid of that ugly contracts too, and and get the
guy that you need that's gonna be an impact player. Okay,
because I believe you're going to see Jetlchenko make the
team next year. That's going to be another piece that's
going to be able to slot in. Okay, So so
(38:11):
you're slowly starting to put together guys.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
You know what I mean, other youthful.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Position player that is going to need a good coach
that can teach youth, not a sixty five year old
guy who's been coaching in the pros for the past
twenty years and doesn't know how to you know, communicate
to the day's players. Because the game is getting younger
(38:38):
and younger and younger and faster and faster and faster.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
Yep, you and you got to be able to roll
with it. You got to be able to roll with it. Well,
I'll tell you what here, folks, we had to come
out and do this special edition for the Hockey Writers, Inc.
John Tornobella was relieved of duties from the Philadelphia Flyers
on March twenty seventh, twenty twenty five. Holy smokes, he
did not see that coming at this time. We saw
(39:03):
it coming, just not right at the moment with you know.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
I saw it coming five months ago when I said
it right, right, right, right, But you know, not crazy.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
When I said that back then.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
Yeah, but we thought maybe that might even happen sooner
or even you know, at the end of the season,
not not with nine games left. But with that being said,
if I can use the term that Lance so definitely
uses in his articles, which, speaking of which, you need
to hop on over to steel Flyers dot com and
check out Lance's latest articles. Number one a Embrace the Suck.
(39:35):
You got to go check that out. Number two. You
also got to check out the NCAA free agents that
need to be looked at by other NHL teams, including
the Flyers, that will be available right now. They weren't drafted,
but they're pretty good players that from college that they
should be taking a look at. Other teams are starting
to do that right now as college, uh you know,
(39:57):
seasons wrap up, those players are going to be available
and there'll be great additions to their team, even if
it's on an AHL level, which the Flyers need help
with that as well too.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
So and all right, we're telling the games this weekend
up and owntown telling get out to see some good
collegiate hockey. The NCAA tournament is coming to Allentown, the
Phantom's home rink. Make a trip up there go see
(40:28):
this hockey games. I think there's you know, gonna be
three or four games that two tomorrow night, and then
you know, after that, yeah, so and.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
Then whoever wins that game gets to be one of
the Frozen four. Right. So there's regionals in in three
other regions besides Allentown, Right, there's there's two out West
and the other ones up in Boston. Right. But Lance
is right, they're gonna be on ESPN two. But make
(41:04):
the trip down to downtown and watch some really really
good hockey. You're gonna see Penn State play against Maine
at the lake game, and you're gonna see uh Yukon
play against Quinnipiac on the early game. And that's right, folks,
yours truly meaning Lance and I will be covering the
(41:25):
NCAA tournament down there. That's right, folks. We'll be down
there covering those games. How about that, We'll.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
Be walking around the concourse. Come say hi, it's a
beautiful rink, it's not a bad not a bad seat
in the house, good food down there.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
Yeah, so for sure, for sure, al Antony, anything in
the works.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
No, I'm pretty focused on going to see this tournament
be played out.
Speaker 3 (41:53):
And yeah, yeah, yeah, and yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Just just happy things are still moving in the direction
with Torteolla being fired, and you know, some of our
younger prospects coming up, and I think maybe do a
wrap up on some of some of our prospects in
the next couple of weeks and kind of let you
(42:19):
know how their seasons are ending. A lot of them
are in playoffs and right now in different leagues all
around the world, so they'll be wrapping up their seasons
and we'll see.
Speaker 1 (42:32):
Yeah, and I'm excited. This is a really good time
of year because not only do you get playoff hockey
for the lower levels, but you start getting playoff hockey
for the NHL. And we all know how exciting the
second season is, right, you know what I mean? So,
and what the Fantom's doing really well, they're they're trying
to punch their ticket to a playoff berth as well too.
(42:53):
So you know we might be able to get to
go cover a Phantoms playoff game. Wouldn't that be cool? Right? Hey? Hey, hey,
all right, big thank you to mister Bob Road Truck
for hooking us up with the application to get the
media credentials for the NCAA tournament. It was because of
(43:14):
you and your assistant Connor. Really appreciate you guys helping
us out getting us that information so we could do
the application. Our application was approved and we're gonna get
to go cover the game as media, so we're both
excited about that and we can't wait. And man, i'll
tell you what, I think the Flyers are really embracing
the rebuild for sure with Torderella being fired. And I'll
(43:38):
tell you what, folks, We will catch you all on
the next episode of The Hockey Writers, Inc.
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