‘What outweighs the X’s and O’s is the will’: John Tortorella starting to install his system with Flyers

Once upon a time, a young coach named John Tortorella fixated on systems and structure. In a thick book handed out to his teams, Tortorella outlined exactly where he wanted his players to be on the ice when the puck moved to any given area, trying to program them to operate precisely in a reactionary game.

Twenty years of experience as an NHL coach later, Tortorella put that book through the proverbial paper shredder.

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“I feel totally opposite about the game right now, especially with today’s athletes [who have] the attention span of an amoeba as far as just getting a couple of minutes out of them,” Tortorella said. “And I mean that. You can’t give them that. And so what outweighs the X’s and O’s is the will.”

Tortorella’s system is just the bones of how he wants the Flyers to play — the will to play fast and hard is the lifeblood that makes the body function properly. That, to Tortorella, is the great differentiator among NHL teams. The Flyers spent the first couple of weeks of training camp working on the will, as Tortorella watched from center ice with his stopwatch as players skated in circles around him to bolster their conditioning.

On Thursday in meetings and at practice, Tortorella paired bones with blood, introducing more of his system and the structure the Flyers will operate within. Tortorella downplayed the significance of teaching the players a new system, asserting that it isn’t “rocket science” compared to any others in the league. But for winger Travis Konecny, finally working within a system provided a boost of confidence after a mostly unstructured preseason.

“Even just defensively out there when you’re breaking up plays and you feel like you’re doing the right things, you’re in the right spots, it’s just like a little reminder, ‘Oh, this is how we’re supposed to be playing the game,’” Konecny said. “It kind of builds into game situations.”

The Flyers focused on structure in both the offensive and defensive zone, defending off the rush, and making plays in small areas. In one week, they will put those lessons to work in their regular-season opener against the New Jersey Devils.

But until then, Tortorella and his staff are focused on coaching the will, encouraging players to play hard within the system.

“It’s just a reminder, if you’re going to make a mistake, do it aggressively,” Konecny said. “Make sure you’re playing hard. And if you are playing aggressively [and] you do make a mistake, they’re going to point it out to you.”

Behind closed doors, Tortorella isn’t afraid to call players out for doing the seemingly “minute things” incorrectly. Doing so, according to Tortorella, will help to create an improved on-ice product.

“I think there’s sloppiness here, and when there’s sloppiness, you have to start over,” Tortorella said. “It’s a new staff. We’re starting over in the smallest little things I’m looking for. Because I think those things turn into a bigger thing. Maybe it’s a disease sometimes. So that’s kind of how we’re going about it.”

During the opening drills of practice, skaters flew down the wings with the puck, firing shots on the goalies at either end of the rink. Starting goalie Carter Hart reset quickly between each one of them, working to keep up with the pace.

Hart didn’t participate in any of the Flyers’ six preseason games after sustaining a lower-body injury in practice on Sept. 25. Since then, he’s been day-to-day to return to the lineup.

By the end of Thursday’s hourlong on-ice session, Hart felt like he lost “a few pounds of water” thanks to his constant activity. But his ability to handle the workload with a gamelike approach is a good sign for his availability leading up to the regular-season opener Oct. 13 against the New Jersey Devils.

“[I’m] just taking it day by day,” Hart said. “But, I mean, we’ve got seven days here, a week, so I’m feeling pretty good about next Thursday.”

Winger Cam Atkinson (upper body) and goalie Felix Sandström (lower body) did not participate in practice. Tortorella said that he wants to give Atkinson “a little bit more time” to heal before getting him back on the ice. ... Winger Joel Farabee (spine surgery) is seeing a doctor on Thursday about getting cleared for contact. If he is cleared, the Flyers will determine the next steps regarding his return to the lineup.

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