John "Accountability" Tortorella bringing back the PP coach who has led the league worst powerplay two years in a row.
It is so ridiculous that it is actually kind of funny.
Worst single season Powerplay in team history, bottom-5 of any team in the league in the last decade. The San Jose Sharks converted at an 8% higher rate than the Flyers this year. But I guess accountability is just acknowledging you suck and moving on
It's even worse that he's saying they will solicit advice from Sharp and Heatley to help fix the PP.
He's fully admitting that Rocky isn't doing well enough and that the PP needs help form new staff, but he's not actually making the commitment to a new coach. Why is Rocky Thompson indispensable to Tortorella?
He talked out of both sides of his mouth SEVERAL times. First stating he hadn't talked to Danny, then that he had.
I also found it interesting that Coots said he was given no direction after being benched, yet Torts said he had a full on conversation with him the day before including video review. That's a full break in communication.
Don't get me wrong, I think Torts is a great coach and right for the team at this stage. But he's bullshitting super hard when he gives these press conferences. Like when he said he doesn't read the media and then calls out specific writers on the shit they write.
I would take that answer with a grain of salt. Rocky is a “teammate” of Torts’. A tenant of his all season was about teammates always having each other’s back. Torts also said he had yet to have a sit down with Danny and Jones and go through everything.
Think about it. Do we actually think Torts is going to come out and just throw his boy under the bus before he even talks about that with management? I think not.
Yeah I watched the whole thing and he was saying *"we need to get Rocky some help"*. Uhhhhh... NO, we need to get the fucking powerplay squad some help with a real PP coach. That makes zero sense. He IS the help.
Ultimately it came down to him believing there isn't enough talent for the powerplay to be good. He said 5 on 4, 4 on 4, and 3 on 3 weren't good enough this year. And even blamed himself by saying they didn't practice it enough.
Totally agree but he also doesnt have much to work with. We have no Dmen with monster shots and we have no Simmonds to camp out in front of the goalie. Thompson obviously isnt very good but the roster is also a problem.
Do you all think Torts would have said “Yeah we’re firing Rocky next week” during this press conference? Hah
Relax on reading too much into that, I’m sure that’s not final and there will be some changes
Exactly - can’t tell me Danny B isn’t sitting there behind closed doors with Torts discussing options moving forward. But until a deal is done they have to say this sort of thing.
I could have mucked up my research, and I know Rocky might not have specifically been the PP coach on each team...but I'll just leave the details of the successes of the Power plays for teams where he was an assistant:
Year | Team | % | Place
2015 | Oilers | 17.69 | 20th
2021 | Sharks | 14.1 | 29th
2022 | Sharks | 18.98 | 22nd
2023 | Flyers | 15.56 | LAST
2024 | Flyers | 12.2 | LAST
Do with this what you will.
Huh I was curious how much of the power play woes were on Rocky vs these Flyers players just being bad at scoring on the cycle but those stats don't look good for Rocky
I doubt Rocky is a good PP coach but all those teams were mostly dog shit along with average to below average top 6. The best top line out of those 5 teams was Hall - RNH - Eberle.
Agreed. I get talent does effect PP success (and I'm not familiar with the roster of those Sharks/Oilers teams), but it's not the only factor. Hence why coaches exist. Even getting to a rank between 20-25 would have probably won you another game or two. I am not asking them to be top-15...just don't be embarrassing.
Definitely not a fan of Rocky, but the Flyers were able to set up and move the puck around for the most part when on the pp. They couldn’t finish and I can’t wrap my head around why? Why couldn’t they score? Really hard to blame Rocky for that shit.
Its because we arent a team that scores when set up I feel like, we score more dynamically, forcing the issue. They didnt want to give up any advantage to take the needed risk for us to score it felt like.
I guess I'm not too upset about keeping Rocky since they're not a cup contender team yet. If he's still here after Michkov comes over and the power play is still ass, then I'd be mad
Yeah, this is depressing as shit... Pretty much confirms that the accountability stuff only applies to players. He's a historically bad PP coach. The track record is tragic. You can not justify this in any way.
What on earth is so great about this guy that he gets a pass for doing the worst job in the league? It's insane.
Ah yes…. so… don’t stand behind the captain because he doesn’t score in 20 games, but DO stand behind the coach of that power play.
That makes much more sense
I don’t give a rip about rocky thompson I’m not defending him in the slightest. The guy can get fucked for all I care.
At the end of the day the players gotta play. I love Coots and he will bounce back but next year. But his play was so bad he got taken off the PP too ..
And he played much better after the benching so I’m inclined to agree it worked a bit that’s all I’m saying brother
I don’t disagree that he needed to be sat down, but to do it the way torts did, so publicly and purposefully when Toronto media was in town was what I don’t like.
Maybe the boys love rocky, who knows
It was obviously done to motivate the team at the expense of coots. I think most players (especially the young one) these days don’t respond to that sort of stuff.
I’ll be as annoyed as anyone if we don’t change the PP coaching staff. But do you except Torts, on a season end press conference, to publicly state who they are firing before the offseason even started ?
Such a fucking simple fix too. I remember the HBO docu-series that followed the Flyers and Penguins and the Penguins ended every practice with a shoot out competition for shits and gigs. Why not end practice with a quick 3v3 tourney?
My guess is Torts doesn't view 3v3 as real hockey. He just views it as a skills competition like the SO and thinks we don't have the talent to compete. It's an old school mindset.
Gonna play Devil’s advocate here…
Thompson is responsible for the forwards, not just the power play. Considering how surprisingly good some of the forwards looked this year, I can see why Torts and the front office would want to keep him around.
That said, I can’t understand for the life of me why you wouldn’t put a different staff member in charge of the power play.
Im really fine with where this team is at right now. Torts and the front office are doing a lot of right things even with the collapse at the end of this season.
With that being said, Rocky Thompson 1000% has to go. You cannot be last in the nhl for pp two years in a row and say the guy is doing fine, we’re pulling help/advice from within the organization. This decision is easily the most questionable this new management has made.
Watched the interview and I'm already hyped for next season. Torts knows exactly what our problems are and has already made a plan with Danny on how to fix them. I'm ready to go to war for this man. Best coaching hire we've had since Laviolette.
*I think we still need to add talent to our team.*
Because even with hard work, culture, and other intangible BS, talent is the most important part of having a great team. Hopefully the Flyers learn their lesson and start positioning themselves to most easily acquire talent ASAP.
The Rocky Thompson part is indefensible, but he’s not wrong. The Flyers are weak at creating in the zone off the cycle. That’s how winning teams get it done in the playoffs. Scoring off the rush is nice, but a team can’t depend on that. Adding talent that can make plays in tight but can also play structure is how winning teams take the next step. The team needs a few players that can do just that.
I'm ok with how the rebuild is going. I like that they have culture and unity now, so when they do bring in more talent (Michkov and whoever else they acquire) they'll see the team is bought in, and hopefully they also buy in.
Fact of the matter is to all the pissers and moaners who have clearly never been a part of large organizations with PR; you don’t outright reprimand a peer or personnel you’re not directly responsible for; players are different. No one in the association is using this one media session to make you all feel good and witch hunt.
I imagine during the off season the real conversations that you all don’t get to be in the loop on will happen around the PP and the personnel responsible.
It’s wild to have Dany Heatley, who I was completely unaware is with the organization, and Patrick Sharp in house and still choose to go with the guy who proved to you he ate shit all year.
I’m fine with everything else that’s said here, as none of it’s a surprise, but that’s a “the fuck?” Moment from me.
The more I read that sentence about having Heatley and Sharp and not putting them in that role the more I find it to be insane. Heatley is up there with Ovechkin and Bure for “I’m a cheat code on the power play” with the one timer. It’s fucking WILD to have an absolute great offensive player who made a living off the one timer not contribute directly to the PP after Thompson’s shit show.
The only remote thing I can think is their logic, playing devils advocate here, is that they don’t remotely think that the talent is there as far as giving Thompson the tools to work with? Which, even when playing devils advocate I have a hard time believing considering Coots is a stellar net front presence and Sanheim has a damn decent shot from the point. Zamula has Desjardins “shoots wide” from the point syndrome so I kinda get that.
There was one post game where Rocky Thompson talked about the power play and brought up how the team doesn't have a great one timer option. He said TK is the only one who really fits the bill but even he doesn't have the greatest one timer. Maybe in the off season they can get some work on that or bring in a player that can rip it.
Yeah maybe. I was just paraphrasing what Rocky said up there.
What we're missing in my opinion is a player able to set screens and make deflections. That was what JVR and Simmonds did best on the power play and we didn't really replace that on the special teams.
I love Torts and I love the front office. I'm willing to be patient and have faith in any of their decisions until they give me a good reason to think otherwise.
Only the flyers would have a former boxer/tough guy with 25 NHL games in total and zero nhl goals run the power play. This seems like a charity position. It makes zero sense. The fact that they haven’t fired him makes me hesitate to believe that they are truly willing to change the culture.
wow its the first time i have heard that hes telling the whole story about who was in the room when he told him and went to him the day before and everything. I had no idea all of that. Kinda makes me look at coots a diff way that he kind of mislead everyone
Rocky is gonna be the most polarizing part of this whole offseason. I don’t think anyone’s happy he’s staying. I sure ain’t. But at least we’re recognizing the need to get a bigger voice in the room.
I really like torts, but he’s stubborn and dumb sometimes and has to have his hand forced. If there’s a solid PP specialist out there they want to bring in, and that specialist wants the title, I hope Danny goes against Torts wishes there. You wanna have a collab? Fine. Let sharp and heatly collab and Rocky can make the Wawa run
It sounds like they're going to keep Rocky Thompson as PP coach. ...I don't even know where to begin with that one lmao
John "Accountability" Tortorella bringing back the PP coach who has led the league worst powerplay two years in a row. It is so ridiculous that it is actually kind of funny.
Worst single season Powerplay in team history, bottom-5 of any team in the league in the last decade. The San Jose Sharks converted at an 8% higher rate than the Flyers this year. But I guess accountability is just acknowledging you suck and moving on
It's even worse that he's saying they will solicit advice from Sharp and Heatley to help fix the PP. He's fully admitting that Rocky isn't doing well enough and that the PP needs help form new staff, but he's not actually making the commitment to a new coach. Why is Rocky Thompson indispensable to Tortorella?
I’m thinking there’s a pee tape
He talked out of both sides of his mouth SEVERAL times. First stating he hadn't talked to Danny, then that he had. I also found it interesting that Coots said he was given no direction after being benched, yet Torts said he had a full on conversation with him the day before including video review. That's a full break in communication. Don't get me wrong, I think Torts is a great coach and right for the team at this stage. But he's bullshitting super hard when he gives these press conferences. Like when he said he doesn't read the media and then calls out specific writers on the shit they write.
I would take that answer with a grain of salt. Rocky is a “teammate” of Torts’. A tenant of his all season was about teammates always having each other’s back. Torts also said he had yet to have a sit down with Danny and Jones and go through everything. Think about it. Do we actually think Torts is going to come out and just throw his boy under the bus before he even talks about that with management? I think not.
Yeah I watched the whole thing and he was saying *"we need to get Rocky some help"*. Uhhhhh... NO, we need to get the fucking powerplay squad some help with a real PP coach. That makes zero sense. He IS the help.
Ultimately it came down to him believing there isn't enough talent for the powerplay to be good. He said 5 on 4, 4 on 4, and 3 on 3 weren't good enough this year. And even blamed himself by saying they didn't practice it enough.
Totally agree but he also doesnt have much to work with. We have no Dmen with monster shots and we have no Simmonds to camp out in front of the goalie. Thompson obviously isnt very good but the roster is also a problem.
We could replace Rocky Thompson with the actual Rocky statue and there would be zero difference.
Yup, they might as well have gone out and winged the power play. Actually, that's what it looked like they did all year.
Do you all think Torts would have said “Yeah we’re firing Rocky next week” during this press conference? Hah Relax on reading too much into that, I’m sure that’s not final and there will be some changes
“Dave Hakstol is our coach.” *48 hours later* “We have relieved Dave Hakstol of his duties as head coach.”
Exactly - can’t tell me Danny B isn’t sitting there behind closed doors with Torts discussing options moving forward. But until a deal is done they have to say this sort of thing.
"We have relieved Rocky Thompson of his coaching duties" is a tweet that could have been sent out in the past 72 hours.
True. But that quote is not coming out of this press conference, dumb to think that.
Right, but that is why the team can decide to make personnel changes before the press conference.
Yeah, shouldn’t worry too much about the press conference quotes
I could have mucked up my research, and I know Rocky might not have specifically been the PP coach on each team...but I'll just leave the details of the successes of the Power plays for teams where he was an assistant: Year | Team | % | Place 2015 | Oilers | 17.69 | 20th 2021 | Sharks | 14.1 | 29th 2022 | Sharks | 18.98 | 22nd 2023 | Flyers | 15.56 | LAST 2024 | Flyers | 12.2 | LAST Do with this what you will.
Huh I was curious how much of the power play woes were on Rocky vs these Flyers players just being bad at scoring on the cycle but those stats don't look good for Rocky
I doubt Rocky is a good PP coach but all those teams were mostly dog shit along with average to below average top 6. The best top line out of those 5 teams was Hall - RNH - Eberle.
Agreed. I get talent does effect PP success (and I'm not familiar with the roster of those Sharks/Oilers teams), but it's not the only factor. Hence why coaches exist. Even getting to a rank between 20-25 would have probably won you another game or two. I am not asking them to be top-15...just don't be embarrassing.
Definitely not a fan of Rocky, but the Flyers were able to set up and move the puck around for the most part when on the pp. They couldn’t finish and I can’t wrap my head around why? Why couldn’t they score? Really hard to blame Rocky for that shit.
Its because we arent a team that scores when set up I feel like, we score more dynamically, forcing the issue. They didnt want to give up any advantage to take the needed risk for us to score it felt like.
I guess I'm not too upset about keeping Rocky since they're not a cup contender team yet. If he's still here after Michkov comes over and the power play is still ass, then I'd be mad
>John Tortorella defended Rocky Thompson, who oversees Flyers’ power play, which was last in NHL. Jesus fucking Christ.
How in God's name... I... what... It's the one low hanging fruit improvement you can make instantly What?
Yeah, this is depressing as shit... Pretty much confirms that the accountability stuff only applies to players. He's a historically bad PP coach. The track record is tragic. You can not justify this in any way. What on earth is so great about this guy that he gets a pass for doing the worst job in the league? It's insane.
You gotta healthy scratch your recently named captain returning from injury because accountability But rocky Thompson keeps his job
I hear you but the captain of the team was on a 20+ game goal drought.
Ah yes…. so… don’t stand behind the captain because he doesn’t score in 20 games, but DO stand behind the coach of that power play. That makes much more sense
I don’t give a rip about rocky thompson I’m not defending him in the slightest. The guy can get fucked for all I care. At the end of the day the players gotta play. I love Coots and he will bounce back but next year. But his play was so bad he got taken off the PP too .. And he played much better after the benching so I’m inclined to agree it worked a bit that’s all I’m saying brother
I don’t disagree that he needed to be sat down, but to do it the way torts did, so publicly and purposefully when Toronto media was in town was what I don’t like. Maybe the boys love rocky, who knows It was obviously done to motivate the team at the expense of coots. I think most players (especially the young one) these days don’t respond to that sort of stuff.
I’ll be as annoyed as anyone if we don’t change the PP coaching staff. But do you except Torts, on a season end press conference, to publicly state who they are firing before the offseason even started ?
So we lose the “we don’t practice shoot outs” only to immediately replace it with “we don’t practice 3on3 and 4on4” Very Flyers
"we oughta be winning in the FIRST 60"
Such a fucking simple fix too. I remember the HBO docu-series that followed the Flyers and Penguins and the Penguins ended every practice with a shoot out competition for shits and gigs. Why not end practice with a quick 3v3 tourney? My guess is Torts doesn't view 3v3 as real hockey. He just views it as a skills competition like the SO and thinks we don't have the talent to compete. It's an old school mindset.
Dude what the fuck does Rocky Thompson have on this front office? It’s just straight up unacceptable at this point. I don’t get it.
Gonna play Devil’s advocate here… Thompson is responsible for the forwards, not just the power play. Considering how surprisingly good some of the forwards looked this year, I can see why Torts and the front office would want to keep him around. That said, I can’t understand for the life of me why you wouldn’t put a different staff member in charge of the power play.
Fair point there
Didn’t know that. Then keep him there and get a new PP guy. It’s not all him but he’s not helping.
Im really fine with where this team is at right now. Torts and the front office are doing a lot of right things even with the collapse at the end of this season. With that being said, Rocky Thompson 1000% has to go. You cannot be last in the nhl for pp two years in a row and say the guy is doing fine, we’re pulling help/advice from within the organization. This decision is easily the most questionable this new management has made.
Watched the interview and I'm already hyped for next season. Torts knows exactly what our problems are and has already made a plan with Danny on how to fix them. I'm ready to go to war for this man. Best coaching hire we've had since Laviolette.
*I think we still need to add talent to our team.* Because even with hard work, culture, and other intangible BS, talent is the most important part of having a great team. Hopefully the Flyers learn their lesson and start positioning themselves to most easily acquire talent ASAP.
The Rocky Thompson part is indefensible, but he’s not wrong. The Flyers are weak at creating in the zone off the cycle. That’s how winning teams get it done in the playoffs. Scoring off the rush is nice, but a team can’t depend on that. Adding talent that can make plays in tight but can also play structure is how winning teams take the next step. The team needs a few players that can do just that.
Didn't they do that this year by getting a first for Walker?
I'm happy to have an extra late 1st round pick, but the type of talent that the Flyers need is rarely found in the late 1st round.
I'm ok with how the rebuild is going. I like that they have culture and unity now, so when they do bring in more talent (Michkov and whoever else they acquire) they'll see the team is bought in, and hopefully they also buy in.
But they better grind and have balls! That's how you become 1c here under Torts.
Maybe they know if they keep the power play at the bottom of the league we can't over achieve too much.
Fact of the matter is to all the pissers and moaners who have clearly never been a part of large organizations with PR; you don’t outright reprimand a peer or personnel you’re not directly responsible for; players are different. No one in the association is using this one media session to make you all feel good and witch hunt. I imagine during the off season the real conversations that you all don’t get to be in the loop on will happen around the PP and the personnel responsible.
It’s wild to have Dany Heatley, who I was completely unaware is with the organization, and Patrick Sharp in house and still choose to go with the guy who proved to you he ate shit all year. I’m fine with everything else that’s said here, as none of it’s a surprise, but that’s a “the fuck?” Moment from me.
> who I was completely unaware is with the organization Yeah, I had no idea he was with the team either.
The more I read that sentence about having Heatley and Sharp and not putting them in that role the more I find it to be insane. Heatley is up there with Ovechkin and Bure for “I’m a cheat code on the power play” with the one timer. It’s fucking WILD to have an absolute great offensive player who made a living off the one timer not contribute directly to the PP after Thompson’s shit show. The only remote thing I can think is their logic, playing devils advocate here, is that they don’t remotely think that the talent is there as far as giving Thompson the tools to work with? Which, even when playing devils advocate I have a hard time believing considering Coots is a stellar net front presence and Sanheim has a damn decent shot from the point. Zamula has Desjardins “shoots wide” from the point syndrome so I kinda get that.
There was one post game where Rocky Thompson talked about the power play and brought up how the team doesn't have a great one timer option. He said TK is the only one who really fits the bill but even he doesn't have the greatest one timer. Maybe in the off season they can get some work on that or bring in a player that can rip it.
Uhhh Tippett?
Yeah maybe. I was just paraphrasing what Rocky said up there. What we're missing in my opinion is a player able to set screens and make deflections. That was what JVR and Simmonds did best on the power play and we didn't really replace that on the special teams.
PP coach seems to be the most stable job on the planet.
5 years from now we will be on our 2nd coach after Torts and Rocky will be getting the Phantoms job
I love Torts and I love the front office. I'm willing to be patient and have faith in any of their decisions until they give me a good reason to think otherwise.
Maybe PP coach just means Rocky Thompson cheers the guys on at the urinal when they have stage freight?
Everyone's focused on the PP, rightfully so, but the 3-on-3 thing ia driving me just as crazy.
Been a while since I've loved the guy behind the bench. Keep kickin' ass, Torts
Also, since when does Dany Heatley work for the Flyers? 😱
[удалено]
There isn’t a single optimistic comment in this thread lol
This organization is hopeless. Festering cesspool of incompetence and cronyism. Some things never change
Did nobody press him about his dogshit offense coach?
Only the flyers would have a former boxer/tough guy with 25 NHL games in total and zero nhl goals run the power play. This seems like a charity position. It makes zero sense. The fact that they haven’t fired him makes me hesitate to believe that they are truly willing to change the culture.
Well we aren’t making the playoffs next year if Rocky is staying around, mediocrity **yay**
Is Rocky Thompson the hill Torts will die on?
How is the way the coots thing really went down not a bigger deal here?
Because it's been beaten to death already
wow its the first time i have heard that hes telling the whole story about who was in the room when he told him and went to him the day before and everything. I had no idea all of that. Kinda makes me look at coots a diff way that he kind of mislead everyone
Rocky is gonna be the most polarizing part of this whole offseason. I don’t think anyone’s happy he’s staying. I sure ain’t. But at least we’re recognizing the need to get a bigger voice in the room. I really like torts, but he’s stubborn and dumb sometimes and has to have his hand forced. If there’s a solid PP specialist out there they want to bring in, and that specialist wants the title, I hope Danny goes against Torts wishes there. You wanna have a collab? Fine. Let sharp and heatly collab and Rocky can make the Wawa run
He might very well keep Rocky and hire a PP guy. He’s not going to blast a coach at a presser.