Flyers President Keith Jones, General Manager Danny Briere, new Head Coach Rick Tocchet, and Comcast Spectacor CEO and Chairman Dan Hilferty at Tocchet's introductory press conference. (Credit: Anthony SanFilippo)
The Flyers introduced Rick Tocchet as their new head coach at an elaborate press conference on Friday morning on the floor of the Wells Fargo Center - and yes, it's still the Wells Fargo Center for another few months.
There was the typical Flyers pomp and circumstance - the scoreboard lowered all the way down to just above the dais with the giant Flyers logo on it. Orange and black balloons adorning the seating area with dozens of season ticket holders clad in their Flyers gear in attendance.
As Tocchet was introduced along with general manager Danny Briere, there was applause from those fans. They were excited for Tocchet to be the latest addition to the "New Era of Orange."
But those excited about it only represent a portion of the fan base.
That's because there's another portion of them, who think the "New Era of Orange" is the same as the "Old Era of Orange. They believe hiring a former Flyer is a bad idea. They'll tell you it's never worked before, so why should it work now? They'll tell you it's the "same old Flyers." Heck, there's even some in the media who will tell further this narrative and tell you that hiring Tocchet is a sign that the Flyers can't help themselves, and that they are abandoning their rebuild and are going to try and win now again.
5 years 25mill??? Holy shit that means he’s the coach for at least 4 years. New era of Orange huh?
I'm here to tell you, bluntly, that if you are one of those people that believes that is the case, then sorry, you don't know what the heck you are talking about.
Go ahead, get offended. Yell at me. Tell me I'm sitting here in on my press box high horse spouting an elitist, "I know better than you" trope. It's fine. I'm used to it. Doesn't change the fact that you are wrong, but I'm used to it.
But, let me prove to you that I am not wrong.
Because, like you, I have no idea if Rick Tocchet is the right coach for the Flyers. Three years from now, we might all reconvene in this space and talk about how the Tocchet era was a failure. And if we are, we'll be talking about the Keith Jones and Danny Briere era as being failures too.
Or, we could be in this space talking about an exciting Flyers team in the middle of a playoff push toward the Eastern Conference Finals.
Who knows?
But in either event, whether they are winning and making everyone happy, or they are miserable and making everyone revolt against the Flyers, it won't matter that Tocchet played for the Flyers as recently as 24 years ago.
Any success he has won't be because he once made the Wells Fargo center erupt during a heavyweight fight with Scott Stevens. Any failure he has won't be because he couldn't score the big goal in Game 7 in Edmonton in 1987.
None of that actually matters.
Oh, I know, the argument will be that the Flyers are being shortsighted and only seriously considering one of their own, and not anyone else that might be out there.
The Flyers didn’t hire Rick Tocchet because he’s a Former Flyer, but that’s why he got the job.
To which I'll point out the following - of the 25 coaches in Flyers history, Tocchet is just the sixth to have played for the team. The other 19 did not. He's also the first since Craig Berube, which was a decade ago. The Flyers have had six coaches in between.
And the most notable thing is this - the NHL is a very small circle of people for such a big sport. Guys change teams all the time. Whether it's as players, coaches or executives. Invariably, you're going to consider guys for jobs who were once involved in the organization or had a connection to the organization.
Now, don't get me wrong - the Flyers were once way too incestuous. I once mapped out that crazy lineage when I worked for Crossing Broad. It went too far for too long.
But that hasn't been the case for quite some time. And even hiring Tocchet doesn't exactly fit the bill. Since he was last employed by the Flyers, he has worked for five other organizations as a coach. He's had success in some places, and not in others.
He won two Stanley Cups with Pittsburgh. He was both an assistant and a head coach in Arizona. He worked with star players as an assistant in Colorado, as a head coach in Tampa and as the bench boss in Vancouver - where the organization wanted him to stay, but Tocchet chose to leave to come to Philadelphia.
And in all those places, there wasn't a bad word uttered about the guy. Players who played for him, loved it. Coaches who coached with him, loved it. Executives who hired and fired him, thought the world of him.
And guess what? None of those relationships he built in those cities had anything to do with where he played as a player.
Whatever happens with Tocchet as the Flyers coach - whether we heap praise on him or criticize him - it should never be tied back t his NHL roots - they are irrelevant.
I know, some of you remain obstinate and unconvinced. You want those of us in the media to ask the tough questions about this kind of thing. About why the Flyers chose to go in this direction.
So, I did you a solid. I did ask.
Not in the press conference, mind you. That's not the right forum. You maybe get one question in and you can't really have a conversation.
So, I did it in Snow The Goalie.
I urge you to watch the interview. I asked both GM Danny Briere and Comcast Spectacor CEO and Chairman Dan Hilferty what they think about this narrative. I asked them about the notion that they are fast forwarding the rebuild now that Tocchet's here. I asked them about committing to Tocchet for five years.
There were other nuggets in the interview, too. Like Briere pointing out that two of the six coaches remaining in the NHL playoffs, are former Flyers, and a third, took his team on a crazy run just to get into the playoffs and got to within two seconds of advancing to the second round. Take a look:
Briere talking about how he was most impressed with the coaching job Tocchet did in Arizona with a team that had no business being competitive was telling about what he valued in a coach for this Flyers team - seeing a similarity.
The difference is, while that Arizona team was stagnated by an owner who had no interest in spending money, the Flyers will spend to the cap - when the time is right - to improve a team.
As for Tocchet, the most important thing he said in the press conference was the bit about how he, at 61 years old, is able to relate to today's athlete, even though he was a product of a bygone era.
Here's that response:
Oh, and another thig:
Rick Tocchet is walking into a no win situation in with Philly fans. The fans are already hating all over him and the team is not ready to win, so they're gonna be relentless in their hate of him from day one, because fans are too stupid to realize you need players to win
That's right. It doesn't matter as much who the coach is. It's about the talent on the team. The Flyers definitely need to improve in that area, or else A tandem of Scotty Bowman, Al Arbour and Glen Sather wouldn't be able to win with this team.
The focus should be more on what Briere and his team do to construct the roster that Tocchet will be given to mold. But, blaming the coach for just about everything is as tried and true a tradition in this town as telling people what parish you are from.
Here's the final thing - if you are the Flyers, you need to get this hiring right. Badly. If, after interviews, you have it down between two guys and that they are pretty even, better to go with the coach who you are familiar with and who has NHL experience than one who you don't.
We were here before - 10 years ago in fact. Dave Hakstol was the hot college coaching name. How'd that work out? It begat a continued run of one bad mistake by the organization after another - because they were chasing their own tail.
The Flyers could have gone in a different direction and hired, say, Pat Ferschweiler, Keith Jones' college linemate who just led his alma mater, Western Michigan, to the NCAA championship.
Some fans would have preferred that. Or David Carle at the University of Denver, who eschewed leaving for the NHL to re-up in college.
They feel like a younger coach, or a college coach offers a "fresh perspective."
But ask yourself, who was the last coach to not be a head coach in the AHL or the NHL prior to taking their first head coaching gig in the NHL who led a team to the Stanley Cup?
The answer is Jean Perron in 1986 with the Montreal Canadians. Before him? Tom Johnson with the Boston Bruins in 1972.
So, two in the last 53 years, and none in the last 39 years.
And how many have done it and failed? Too many to count.
So, it makes perfect sense that the Flyers went in this direction. It's understandable that they think Tocchet fits like a silk glove.
Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't. But everyone needs to let his coaching determine that, and not fry the team in the court of public opinion just because he once played for the team.
Now, just wait til you see how you react if his assistant coaches end up also being former Flyers.
