Connect with us

Published

on

It was opening night for the Philadelphia Flyers, and pessimism swirled ahead of the Thursday night game against the New Jersey Devils. Forward Joel Farabee checked Twitter before arriving to the rink.

“Everyone is already saying our season is done,” Farabee said. “No one believes in us but ourselves.”

A clip of John Tortorella is making the rounds on the internet, as a reporter asked if the coach found something the Flyers are good at and can possibly build an identity around.

“No,” Tortorella said.

Then came the pregame introduction at Wells Fargo Arena in Philadelphia. When injured defenseman Ryan Ellis’ name was announced, the crowd erupted in boos.

Welcome to life in a city with unrelenting passion — where patience is not a luxury its sports teams enjoy. The Flyers know they can’t hide. The organization has come to terms with its reality.

The 2021-22 season was dismal. “There was a crazy amount of adversity we faced,” general manager Chuck Fletcher said. “And we didn’t handle it well, to put it mildly.”

Added veteran Cam Atkinson: “There were things that went on last year that I didn’t appreciate. … It was a bit of a country club feel.”

Initially, Fletcher said he believed his team was hamstrung by a series of unfortunate events — including roughly 500 man games lost to injury — and was an “aggressive retool” away from contending again. After a summer of soul-searching, the organization changed its tune.

Tortorella was hired for a hard reset. The veteran coach, to a fault, says exactly what he feels. His first task? “Finding out who wants to be part of this,” he said. And that means both young players the organization had been counting on and veterans who have been around for years.

A team that hires Tortorella knows what it is signing up for. Things are going to change, and the process isn’t always going to be smooth. But in the end, the team has an identity — something lacking with the Flyers the past few seasons.

“We have zero respect in this league. I’m willing to admit that,” Tortorella said. “But that’s what gets me going. I love this opportunity.”


FLYERS FANS WANTED another signing this summer: Johnny Gaudreau. The South Jersey product, one of the most skilled wingers in the league, made it known he’d love to play for his hometown team after leaving Calgary.

“We had a ton of discussions about Johnny and other top free agents and how to best spend money,” Fletcher said. “But to sign one of these $70 million, top-end players, we needed to clear cap space. That would have required us parting with first-round picks. And coming off a 61-point season, that just wasn’t palatable to us.”

As the organization received more clarity on Ellis’ prognosis — which was not looking good — defense became a priority. A major trade acquisition from Nashville in 2021, Ellis has played just four games with the Flyers, dealing with an injury that has been identified as a torn psoas muscle in his back.

According to both Fletcher and Ellis’ agent, the defenseman is not considering retirement yet. He’d desperately like to play, and is working toward that goal. This season, Ellis is living in South Jersey with his family and has been working out at the team facility. Being with the team has improved Ellis’ mental health, his agent said. But the 31-year-old is still living with pain and having some hard days. It’s highly unlikely Ellis will play this season.

Ellis was acquired to team with Ivan Provorov on Philadelphia’s top defensive pairing. So the Flyers used their cap space this summer to sign Tony DeAngelo (two years, $10 million) to play with Provorov. They also spent big on a contract extension for Travis Sanheim (eight years, $50 million).

The team wants better defensive structure to support Carter Hart. A team’s success is too often dependent on goaltending, and Tortorella said one of his No. 1 priorities is “letting the young goalie play.”

Hart has long been viewed as the solution to the organization’s decades-long goaltending carousel. Over Hart’s four-year career, he’s been solid but not spectacular: 62-61-16, a .905 save percentage and 2.97 goals-against average.

“He just turned 24 years old,” Tortorella stressed, once again reminding the fans to be patient.

And the team hasn’t played well in front of Hart, which has made the goaltender’s job harder.

Learning to defend as a team — and committing to defending — is a Tortorella hallmark.

“You don’t f—ing win if you don’t know how to play away from the puck,” he said.


TORTORELLA HAS A reputation for being hard-nosed, but it’s the worst-kept secret in the league that the coach has a huge heart.

“All people see are the YouTube clips that were from, you know, 10-plus years ago,” said Atkinson, who played for Tortorella for six years in Columbus. “And don’t get me wrong, he’s had his moments. He’s a fiery guy and wants to win just as bad as you do.

“But he’s also one of the best guys I’ve ever known and — a great communicator, checks in on you from time to time, asks how your family’s doing, your kids, how your mom and dad are doing.”

Atkinson said he advocated for Fletcher to bring Tortorella to Philadelphia. “As I get older, I only have so many years left,” the 33-year-old Atkinson said. “And I want to win.”

The work begins now. Tortorella training camps are notorious for being heavy on conditioning. All players were required to come in at 11% body fat or under. And they did.

That helps cater to Tortorella’s style, which requires commitment to structure and details.

“His teams in Columbus weren’t the highest-skilled teams, but their puck possession numbers were top 10 in the league,” Fletcher said. “We want to look like that. If we don’t have enough skill to score as much as other teams, that might be our reality.”

Fletcher revealed something else about Tortorella: “He keeps saying, ‘I’ve changed, I’ve changed.'”

While Tortorella conditioned the players hard in camp, the coach was also checking in with the sports science and newly revamped medical staff, Fletcher said. And there were no more runs, just hard skates.

Tortorella said the biggest way he’s changed is in his approach with younger players.

“I listen more. I do,” he said. “I think you have to with the athlete in today’s world. I think it’s the right way to coach, to empower them. But I can’t let it run away from me, where if I listen too much — human nature is they take advantage of that.

“I’m still going to push them. I’m still going to be hard, be disciplined. But I want them to be part of the equation with me. That’s the biggest thing I’m trying to get better at. Am I rock solid? Absolutely not. But I’m working on it.”

Tortorella doesn’t want his team to be the Broad Street Bullies. But he does think it can have the toughness to give it an identity the city will fall back in love with. It’s just going to take a hard reset to get there.

Continue Reading

Sports

Which current NHL players will make the Hockey Hall of Fame? Sorting the candidates into eight tiers

Published

on

By

Which current NHL players will make the Hockey Hall of Fame? Sorting the candidates into eight tiers

The Hockey Hall of Fame is going to swing open its doors to some impressive former NHL stars in the next few years. Legends such as Zdeno Chara, Joe Thornton, Duncan Keith and Patrice Bergeron. Eventually Jaromir Jagr will be inducted. Probably in his 80s, when he’s done playing.

The Hall can welcome up to four men’s players in every annual class. Given how many current NHL players have a legitimate case for immortality, the selection committee will not suffer for a lack of choices.

Here is a tiered ranking of active NHL players based on their current Hall of Fame cases. We’ve picked the brain of Hockey Hall of Fame expert Paul Pidutti of Adjusted Hockey to help figure out the locks, the maybes, “the Hall of Very Good” and which young stars are on the path to greatness.

Let’s begin with the two players who have defined this century of hockey, and another player whose legend has grown to the point where he’s a sure-thing Hall of Famer.

Continue Reading

Sports

Bottom 10: Lost weekend in Florida

Published

on

By

Bottom 10: Lost weekend in Florida

Inspirational thought of the week:

“Honestly, when we lose, I don’t even get in the shower until early this morning. I’ll just be mad. I just brush my teeth. It’s like, I don’t deserve soap.”
Syracuse head coach Fran Brown

Here at Bottom 10 Headquarters, located behind the “sorry, not sorry” bouquet of water hemlocks sent to the Big 12 officiating office from Utah athletic director Mark Harlan, we know all too well the sting of losing football games. We see it every week in every game we watch.

Yeah, yeah, we know what you’re thinking. “Come on, dummy, someone loses every game that anyone watches.” That’s true. At least now it is. We are also old enough to remember when games ended in ties. That was way worse.

But here in the Bottom 10 Cinematic Universe, losses are worse because that’s all you experience. You’d think we’d get used to it, numb from the pain like when you keep accidentally biting that same spot on your tongue to the point that it just becomes sensory free. But instead, it’s like Bruce Banner explained about being the Hulk: “You see, I don’t get a suit of armor. I’m exposed. Like a nerve. It’s a nightmare.”

However, as we learned in “Age of Ultron,” even after one of his worst losses, Bruce Banner does take a shower. So, Coach Brown, take it from us, in a world where every team has a helluva lot more losses than Syracuse … dude, wash up. Seriously. We can smell you from here. And we’re in Kent, Ohio.

With apologies to Mr. Clean, former Miami (Ohio) quarterback Mike Bath, former Southern Illinois running back Wash Henry and Steve Harvey, here are the post-Week 11 Bottom 10 rankings.


The Golden(plated) Flashes are still America’s last winless FBS team, losing their 18th straight game when they were edged by Ohio 41-0. Now they travel to My Hammy of Ohio, where they are given a 2.8% chance to win by the ESPN Analytics Ouija board, er, I mean Matchup Predictor. But honestly, that game will only be the appetizer ahead of the, yes, Week 13 main course that is the Wagon Wheel showdown with Akronmonious. And by appetizer we mean way-past-the-expiration-date freezer-burned mini-pizza bagels.


The New Owls not only used their talons to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory at UTEP, losing in double overtime, they earned Bottom 10 Bonus Points for firing their head coach — and during their first year as an FBS team, no less. Though the AD issued a statement that Brian Bohannon had “stepped down,” Bohannon himself responded on social media: “Contrary to what’s been reported, I want to be clear that I did not step down.” But there is no confusion as to whether the Owls have stepped up or down in these rankings, where every move up is also a move down.


Brett Favre Funding U. lost to We Are Marshall 37-3, meaning all eight of their defeats this season have been by double digits. In related news, I also received double digit political texts on Election Day — and one of those was from Favre. No, for real. I wonder, did he cover the data charges himself or did he steal change from the donation jar at his grocery store checkout?


Sometimes in this life we are asked to do things that go against the fiber of our being. Like taking your daughter to the concert of an artist you’ve never heard of. Or me having to use Earth’s most annoying instrument, the leaf blower. This weekend this team of Minutemen will be asked to try to defeat Liberty.


5. The Sunshine State

The Coveted Fifth Spot has never been more crowded. The FBS, FCS and NFL teams of Florida posted a 1-11 record over the weekend, salvaged only by the Miami Dolphins’ win over the Los Angeles Rams on “Monday Night Football.” UC(not S)F, US(not C)F, FA(not I)U, Stetson, Florida A&M and Bethune-Cookman all lost, led in misery by the Wildcats’ five-overtime loss to Southern. The Flori-duh Gate Doors celebrated the announced retaining of coach Billy Napier by losing to Texas in a squeaker 49-17. And My Hammy of Florida finally spotted an opponent a lead too large for a Cam Ward comeback and took its first loss of the season, falling to unranked Georgia Tech. If only someone else in the state could relate to that …


The Semi-No’s are continuing to work around the Coveted Fifth Spot by earning their Bottom 10 keep the old-fashioned way, not only losing to semi/sorta/kinda ACC member Notre Dame by a scant 52-3, but also earning a pile of their own Bottom 10 Bonus Points not by firing head coach Mike Norvell, but because Norvell fired both his offensive and defensive coordinators and a wide receivers coach. In related news, over the weekend a friend of mine steered his bass boat into a giant pile of sharp rocks and reacted by throwing his shirt and hat overboard.


It was three weekends ago that the Buttermakers lost to then-second-ranked Oregon 35-0. On Saturday, they lost to then-second-ranked Ohio State 45-0. Now they play sixth-ranked Penn State, and in two weeks end their season playing currently eighth-ranked Indiana. We have to assume that a team of professors from Purdue’s legendary mechanical engineering department is studying this experience as a way to assess the stress put on a school bus that is attempting to drive over a lava field covered in landmines.


The Minors have a weekend off to continue their post-Kennesaw victory party. And what’s the best way to snap yourself out of a two-week hangover? Hair of the dog? A cold bucket of water over the head? How about the hair of a coontick hound and a bucket of water from the river during a Week 13 trip to Neyland Stadium to play Tennessee?


Whatever is left of UTEP after Knoxville will then play whatever is left of the Other Aggies after their Week 12 trip to face the OG Aggies of Texas A&M. If there’s any justice in this world, then the loser and/or winner of that Aggie Bowl would go on to play …


The Other Other Aggies lost to the one-loss team the nation forgot about, Warshington State. But if you consider the week before that, we find a Bottom 10 conundrum. Utah State beat WhyOMGing? but the week before that lost to Whew Mexico by five points. Meanwhile, Wyoming, who lost to Utah State two weeks ago, spent last weekend beating New Mexico by five points. Perhaps we will be given some clarity when Wyoming ends the year at Washington State. Or perhaps we will have already given up. As so many here in the Bottom 10 seem to do.

Waiting list: Miss Sus Hippie State, Georgia State Not Southern, FA(not I)U, Akronmonious, Meh-dle Tennessee, WhyOMGing?, Temple of Doom, Living on Tulsa Time, You A Bee?, Standfird, people who put all those election signs up but now won’t take them down.

Continue Reading

Sports

Bans remain for Bad Bunny agency execs, agent

Published

on

By

Bans remain for Bad Bunny agency execs, agent

NEW YORK — An arbitrator upheld five-year suspensions of the chief executives of Bad Bunny’s sports representation firm for making improper inducements to players and cut the ban of the company’s only certified baseball agent to three years.

Ruth M. Moscovitch issued the ruling Oct. 30 in a case involving Noah Assad, Jonathan Miranda and William Arroyo of Rimas Sports. The ruling become public Tuesday when the Major League Baseball Players Association filed a petition to confirm the 80-page decision in New York Supreme Court in Manhattan.

The union issued a notice of discipline on April 10 revoking Arroyo’s agent certification and denying certification to Assad and Miranda, citing a $200,000 interest-free loan and a $19,500 gift. It barred them from reapplying for five years and prohibited certified agents from associating with any of the three of their affiliated companies. Assad, Miranda and Arroyo then appealed the decision, and Moscovitch was jointly appointed as the arbitrator on June 17.

Moscovitch said the union presented unchallenged evidence of “use of non-certified personnel to talk with and recruit players; use of uncertified staff to negotiate terms of players’ employment; giving things of value – concert tickets, gifts, money – to non-client players; providing loans, money, or other things of value to non-clients as inducements; providing or facilitating loans without seeking prior approval or reporting the loans.”

“I find MLBPA has met its burden to prove the alleged violations of regulations with substantial evidence on the record as a whole,” she wrote. “There can be no doubt that these are serious violations, both in the number of violations and the range of misconduct. As MLBPA executive director Anthony Clark testified, he has never seen so many violations of so many different regulations over a significant period of time.”

María de Lourdes Martínez, a spokeswoman for Rimas Sports, said she was checking to see whether the company had any comment on the decision. Arroyo did not immediately respond to a text message seeking comment.

Moscovitch held four in-person hearings from Sept. 30 to Oct. 7 and three on video from Oct. 10-16.

“While these kinds of gifts are standard in the entertainment business, under the MLBPA regulations, agents and agencies simply are not permitted to give them to non-clients,” she said.

Arroyo’s clients included New York Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez and teammate Ronny Mauricio.

“While it is true, as MLBPA alleges, that Mr. Arroyo violated the rules by not supervising uncertified personnel as they recruited players, he was put in that position by his employers,” Moscovitch wrote. “The regulations hold him vicariously liable for the actions of uncertified personnel at the agency. The reality is that he was put in an impossible position: the regulations impose on him supervisory authority over all of the uncertified operatives at Rimas, but in reality, he was their underling, with no authority over anyone.”

Continue Reading

Trending