Philadelphia Flyers head coach John Tortorella is not a fan of tanking, and he let the orange and black devoted understand it on Friday.
Speaking with reporters, Tortorella commented on the mail he will get urging the team to lose on goal in hopes of a better decide on this summer season’s NHL Draft.
“Stop sending me mail about tanking. There’s no such thing with professional athletes tanking,” Tortorella mentioned through Charlie O’Connor of The Athletic. “They would not be able to live with themselves if they went home and did something to try and disturb the outcome of a game. It is asinine.”
The Flyers have been one of many worst groups within the NHL this season however maybe not unhealthy sufficient for its rabid fa nbase, who’ve had desires about consensus No. 1 general decide Connor Bedard dancing of their heads.
According to Tankathon, the Flyers have solely a 6.5 % likelihood of choosing first within the draft. With the seventh-worst report (27-32-12), the Flyers unsurprisingly have the best odds (44.4 %) of drawing the No. 7 decide.
Recently, a lot to the chagrin of Flyers fans, the team has received three of its final 4 video games, registering no less than a degree in every outing. While a four-game level streak this late within the 12 months will undoubtedly hurt the Flyers’ lottery standing, Tortorella insisted that enjoying the suitable approach pays dividends down the road.
“And there are hockey gods, too. They’re there,” Tortorella told reporters. “You go about your business the right way each and every day, you look yourself in the mirror, and say, ‘Did I give everything?’ And you live with the circumstances.”
There is a few reality to Tortorella’s feedback. Many gamers on this 12 months’s Flyers squad will not be again subsequent season, however share of the youthful members will. Those gamers will bear in mind the work it took to get there if and when the franchise crawls out of an almost decade-long stoop. They’ll additionally know that the person behind the bench was extra involved about their development as gamers moderately than chasing a draft decide.
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