Flyers clear the first hurdle of John Tortorella’s rope test: ‘It feels really good to be done’

Ah, the first day of NHL training camp. A good day to shake off the rust and get back into the groove of things, a good day to get in some puck touches and stretch the legs out.

Well, on Thursday at the Flyers Training Center, not a single puck was seen, but the Flyers certainly got the legs going.

John Tortorella’s rope test is infamous. The Flyers head coach has started off every one of his training camps with this test of will — physically and mentally.

Now, if you were expecting this rope — yellow with what looks like carabiners attached at each end — to be lifted out of a briefcase with a secret number combination to open, it was not. But if it did come out of a box, like the Ark being opened in Raiders of the Lost Ark, surely a few souls of guys who didn’t complete the test in years past exited. Like Indiana Jones and Marion, the current Flyers probably would keep their eyes closed to avoid that same fate — although some would probably want to, well, raid the ropes home.

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“If you’re not in shape, you’re going to be exposed pretty easily,” defenseman Erik Johnson said. “So it’s just as much of a physical grind as it’s a mental grind. For me. I think, as an older guy, you kind of figure out how to be more efficient at times, but you still have to push yourself to limits. It’s hard, no matter who you are and how many times you practice it, which we have a bunch in the summer, and you go a little bit faster here because he’s pushing you.”

This may be Johnson’s first camp with the Flyers after being acquired from the Buffalo Sabres at last year’s trade deadline, but he is no stranger to the dreaded skating test, which also involves the Herb Brooks up-and-backs showcased in Miracle (TBD on whether Tortorella is yelling “Again.”) His old coach with the Colorado Avalanche, Jared Bednar, comes from the Tortorella coaching tree and had a version; that one was six trips with three laps each and Tortorella, of course, has to go bigger and do eight.

There is no training for this moment, like a marathon runner who never hits 26.2 miles during training. And you certainly cannot be prepared for Tortorella’s bark. He was heard yelling “Get there” at defenseman Egor Zamula, told blueliner Jamie Drysdale to skate through the line, and pulled teenage phenom Matvei Michkov aside for some advice. Each player finished the test.

“To be honest, there’s a lot of mixed emotions out there,” said Drysdale, who was spotted shaking out his legs between his turns quite a few times. “You’re trying to catch your breath; your legs feel like stone — and it happens pretty quick, too, I’d say about three or four [turns in]. But, yeah, I think that’s a pretty perfect example of just a mental battle. And I think that, if you can get through that, it gives you some confidence moving forward.”

It may have been Drysdale’s first twirl with a Tortorella rope test, but he wasn’t the only one who was hunched over trying to recover quickly between sets. Several guys were grimacing as they skated around the rink, with the nets moving farther and farther apart as the eight trips wore on. One veteran in particular was happy that his ghosts of skate tests past did not resurface this season.

“This year was a little bit better for me. I didn’t lock up the second rep, so that was nice. Kept the crossovers going, and, yeah, I felt a lot better this year,” said center Scott Laughton, who became a little bit of a viral sensation last season when he cramped up during the test. “I think it eats you up throughout the summer, and I think Torts knows it; it’s more of a mental grind. But that’s what you’re thinking about when you’re [bag skating] yourself this summer is getting ready for how strenuous this camp is and going through it.

“I’ll tell you, it feels really good to be done and to get moving on here to play some real hockey.”

Real hockey starts Friday, when there should be the sound of pucks echoing around the Flyers Training Center. But for Tortorella, the real test is now completed.

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“We’ve got so many good athletes in our league,” he said. “No one wants to be embarrassed in these skates, so they do the work. ... There were some guys that struggled, but there weren’t many people that didn’t finish, and that’s the key for me was just making sure they finished the skate. A lot of people say, ‘He’s an idiot’ doesn’t have pucks on the ice,’ this, that, and the other thing. It’s an effective way for me to judge where people are at and judge the camaraderie of what we’re trying to do here.”

Camaraderie is a good word, as there definitely was bonding among the players split among three groups. Johnson, 36, gave a high five to 19-year-old defenseman Oliver Bonk; winger Joel Farabee and blueliner Emil Andrae collected their breaths together on the blue line near center ice; center Sean Couturier “got some help” from All-Star winger Travis Konecny with a few pushes, and Konecny gave every guy a tap as Group 1 stretched in a circle afterward. Finally, all the guys who were done stood along the glass watching their buddies partake in what is now a time-honored tradition.

Was it the prettiest skating out there? Absolutely not, although some onlookers were impressed by the all-out sprint by Garnet Hathaway to start each lap and how the spry 18-year-old Jett Luchanko did what he does best to the end. But Tortorella doesn’t care about any of that; he just wants his guys to finish. So the Flyers went out there and battled the lactic acid, the mental grind, the chewed-up ice, and the watchful eye of Tortorella.

“I watched [Couturier] today when we were doing it and the first two reps, I said, ‘Oh [expletive]’ because it looked like he was going to die pretty quickly, and he fought through it,” Tortorella said of his captain.

He also pointed out guys like Drysdale, Michkov, and defenseman Cam York — who he said was better than last year — gritted it out and finished. He also gave high marks to rookie center Massimo Rizzo, crediting him with finishing before saying he was worse than former Flyers winger Cam Atkinson, “who was one of the worst for me.”

So, as Rocky Thompson looped the yellow rope around his arm like a veteran grip taking up cables, the Flyers can put this test behind them, with the next one about 365 days away.

But, is there a method to the madness, aside from maybe throwing some Atomic Balm on to get the legs loose like Laughton?

“I just go [all] out the first rep, and then we’ll see what happens after,” defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen said. “Try to finish.”