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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: FLYERS v LIGHTNING

May 7, 2004

John Tortorella

TAMPA, FLORIDA: Practice Day

Q. Is it too simplistic to say that the series was a match-up of your guys' speed versus their physicality?
JOHN TORTORELLA: Well, that's one of them. There are plenty of things that go on within a series. Physical play, I mean, that's playoff hockey.
They are a pretty quick hockey team also. I think it's two teams that are two of the teams in the Final Four here, and they are two very good hockey clubs right on through. That's what it's about.
Q. You had mentioned before about how the team responded to the intensity of the second round last season, uncharted territory, going into uncharted territory again, do you have a sense of how they will respond to this level of the playoffs?
JOHN TORTORELLA: Oh, they are ready to play. That's what I'll say. They are ready to play. I think we've had a good week of preparation. I think they are in the process of learning what playoff hockey is about. They have been successful in three out of their four, and they are ready to play.
Q. Coach, in some cities, you won't have to sell the sport as much as you do here. Do you feel you have a duel role and does one ever conflict with the other, coaching and salesman?
JOHN TORTORELLA: I'm no salesman. I'm by no means a salesman. I coach a group of men in the National Hockey League.
I think if you go about it right, if this organization is going about it the right way, it sells itself. So that's how I think you sell professional sports is winning, and that's what we are trying to do as an organization.
Q. Is it starting to feel like a hockey community to you?
JOHN TORTORELLA: Oh, I think it has been. I think as we have gone through the past two or three years, it is slowly -- we have slowly taken steps and I think this here is a great sports town. We have the NFL, we have Major League Baseball, we have the National Hockey League, arena football, I think there are some great sports fans here. But you make your own bed. I've said all along we are not going to whine about people coming to those games the prior years. You need to win. And people start coming out and that's how you sell your game, by putting good product on there and right on through your organization, from ownership right on through your general manager and through the team, doing it the right way.
Q. You brought them back for practice on Wednesday and you kind of barked at them a little bit to get their intensity level up; in the last three days, have you seen it get to the level it needs to be?
JOHN TORTORELLA: Yeah, I think they have practiced very well. I think early on, they practiced a couple of days, when we didn't know who we were playing, I think once we found out who we were playing, and you start zeroing in on that, I think that helps the focus.
I think the past couple of days, they have practiced very well. Now, it's -- too much practice can hurt you. We're done practicing. We need to play the games.
Q. What was your relationship like with Jeremy Roenick? He had some very nice things to say earlier today about his time with you; could you just tell us a little bit about that?
JOHN TORTORELLA: Well, when I was -- I was an assistant coach at the time. I think when you're an assistant coach, you end up in different relationships with your players. I think you do a lot more one-on-one with them after practice, whatever it may be. I was Jimmy Schoenfeld's assistant at that point in time.
J.R. is a guy that marches to his own beat and I like that. I think with an athlete, you need to have some personality. J.R. certainly has some personality. As I said, I think he is -- he's a guy that competes.
We spent quite a bit of time. I was doing a lot of special teams work there for Shoeny and I spent a lot of time with him on the power play and this, that and the other thing and you develop relationships with players. I think when you're done coaching and you're done playing and you're out of this game, I think relationships are what you have left. You meet some pretty interesting people along the way, and so they evolve as you go through and J.R. had a pretty good one out there.
Q. Hitchcock seemed to think this team is totally different and much better than the team you beat four times in the season. The video you have seen, what is different about them and how are they better?
JOHN TORTORELLA: I am not going to analyze and critique the Philadelphia Flyers. We have enough work to do with our team. That's the most important thing that we are concerned about, what our team concept is about, how we are approaching it and how we are going to play the game. The Philadelphia Flyers were good during the regular season and they are very good now in the playoffs. They would not be here if they were not a quality club. So we know that.
But to dissect and to get involved too much with your opponent, we are not going to go about doing that. We want to play our game. We're going to stay with our team identity and go about our business.
Q. Can you characterize your approach that you took with Vinny Lecavalier this year, you chose not to handle him at times with kid gloves; are you seeing now that that was the right track to take?
JOHN TORTORELLA: I want to make something perfectly clear, and it seems some people have said because of how I coached him, he is playing the way he is -- and he's playing very well -- we take, as coaches, we take no credit for that. This is the kid who has to play. He has to play. I think the most important thing for a coach is guiding your players to the road that we feel he's best going to succeed, and that's all that's about. He's trying to make players, not just Vinny, but it seems that's what's always talked about. We did this with a number of young core players, try to put them in a position to succeed. That's all our responsibility is. And their talent and their psyche or whatever you want to call it, takes over.
So, how I coach them, I wouldn't change a damn thing. People criticize it. I'm not too concerned about criticizing how we go about business. We are consistent in how we do it and we're probably tougher on some other people, but no one wants to talk about them, because of Vinny's name. And I understand that.
But that's how we go about our business. We had a very young core of people here in an organization that was really struggling in understanding how to win, and this coaching staff presented the way we thought was best in how we approach our business and we are going to continue doing it.
Q. Do you change that approach depending on the kid?
JOHN TORTORELLA: Oh, sure. Every athlete is different. Every athlete is different. I think that's what you've got to be careful of. We talked about this last week. I think you, as a coach, you need to be really careful when you're asking more out of a player, you need to make sure that it's not too quick to ask for that; that you think he's able to get there.
Because if he isn't able to get there and you push him too hard, you may hurt him. So that's what you've got to be careful. There's all different thought processes that go into it, but the bottom line is, the way we approached it here, our locker room was a weak locker room as far as preparing, as far as our conditioning, as far as competing. And we needed to change that. It was a comedy club.
And we felt we had some really good people, but they needed some guidance and that's all our job is as a coach, is to guide. I refuse to back off of that, and I refuse to take any credit when a player starts playing well, because he is the one that's doing it; not us as coaches. It's our job to try to get him to that situation to succeed, if that makes sense.
Q. With that in mind about the locker room you just described, who is your go-to guy? I'm just basing it on the Philadelphia thing, Hitchcock has a group of senior players who he uses to sell his message. Who did you go to?
JOHN TORTORELLA: Well, I think our locker room started changing when you -- and remember, we had such a young team, and at the point in time when this coaching staff took over, there wasn't much veteran leadership. And that's tough for a young guy. He doesn't understand the lead and what you have to do. So when you bring in a Dave Andreychuk, a Tim Taylor, that understand and have been there, that is the best type of pressure as far as an athlete is concerned, when it's peer pressure.
David and I talked over the summer before we signed him. We explained the role that we are looking for him to do, and he's been a mainstay. Tim Taylor, the same thing. But as it's gone on now, this has gone on now for three years, you can see David allowing some of the young core to start stepping up, and that's how you develop leadership. I think it's well orchestrated by David at some times in the locker where he doesn't say much and he wants the young kids to step up.
So you go through that whole process. That's the greatest thing about sport is, how you get that locker room straightened out. And we had a lot of problems -- I shouldn't say problems, we had a lot of inexperience as far as what to do there. And when you bring in veterans like that, and coaches have a message that we want to sell, if the veterans believe in it, it makes it an easier sell, and we've gone about our business that way.

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