Flyers’ coach John Tortorella has seen a thing or two during his NHL career.
But he may not have been a part of anything like the events that unfolded in Ottawa last Saturday when Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly cross-checked Senators center Ridly Grieg in the face after Grieg took a slap shot into an empty net. Rielly was suspended five games for the hit on Tuesday.
When asked about the incident Thursday before the Flyers played the Maple Leafs, Tortorella launched into a tirade against the league.
“Oh, my God. It is a different league. I gotta be really careful how I say it,” Tortorella said. “Well, it’s a dumb league. It is. It’s changed for coaches, too. And we’ve had to make adjustments because there are so many mistakes made.”
Tort believes that the younger players have lost a bit of the process it takes to become a pro.
“They have entourages around them that I think direct them the wrong way,” he said. “And the hierarchy of a room, the hierarchy of what it is to be a pro, the process you have to go through as a pro, I think, is lost a little bit with the athlete now. And it’s something I miss terribly in being in the league for so long, seeing where it’s gone to now.”
Tortorella played four years of minor professional hockey in the Atlantic Coast Hockey League before becoming an assistant coach in the AHL in 1988.
He’s coached in the big leagues since 1999, winning a Stanley Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004. He’d know when the league is going through a change.
The Flyers ultimately lost in overtime to the Rielly-less Maple Leafs Thursday night.
Philly staged a third-period comeback to force the overtime period, but William Nylander scored to win it for Toronto.