It is a dark time for the Flyers fandom. The team is not in a good place. They are losing games constantly. There is a long list of frustrations. And the gut punch, was last night watching the Wells Fargo Center be taken over by Rangers fans. Fans are frustrated. And they are directing those frustrations at Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher, and the Flyers ownership. They did not join us today. But Head Coach John Tortorella did. While Tortorella has not been here for long, and the state of the franchise is not his fault, he tried to address some of those frustrations today. Understanding why fans are not showing up, but asking for patience because he thinks they are on the right path. See what he had to say here about fan frustrations, the direction of the team, his relationship with Chuck Fletcher, and more.
On the fans not showing up to games
“I don’t blame anybody for what is going on in there. We have to get a better product. You cant do it with gimmicks. The way you get people in the building is to win. That is what we will try to accomplish here. Hopefully it will be a tough ticket to get in the next couple of years.”
On if his vision for the team aligns with Chuck Fletcher’s vision of the team
“It does. I know there has been a lot of speculation out there about whether Chuck and I are on the same page… We are all on board. The key is when there is a hiccup…staying with the plan. You can discuss the plan all you want. I think it is the right plan. But it is staying with it. We are all committed to that. And as I have said all along, it is not happening overnight. If people want to complain, go ahead. It is not happening over night. We will try to do this the right way.”
On some players not being part of the plan
Before you add players, you are going to subtract players that we don’t feel will be part of this. It may not be because they are a bad player. they just don’t fit what we are going to do here. It just doesn’t fit what we are trying to do here. Guys know it. But we continue to go about our business the proper way. You put a uniform on, you play as hard as you can. And we are going to coach as hard as we can. Whatever lies a head of us, we will go through it. But when you put the uniform on, you go play.
On if he thinks the team is heading in the right direction
I think we have held up to our end of the bargain to this point. There haven’t been many nights where we showed up and didn’t play hard. I can count them on one hand. And we have played 60+ games now. I am happy about that. I see a lot of growth in a lot of players… But I do think we are on the right track. Both on the ice, and off it. People may be discouraged and impatient about this. I don’t know what to tell you. I firmly believe that we will go about this the right way. We have it back on the tracks.
And you can listen to the full interview with John Tortorella here…
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