Tortorella Post Game �'walk out'' Anger or Strategy?

He left that post-game media duty to his "right hand man", and Flyers assistant coach, Brad Shaw. Some speculated this display by Tortorella could be due to him being angry with his current teams performance against his former team. Perhaps he was so angry he didn't want to speak with the media because he was afraid of what would come out of his mouth. Maybe he just decided he didn't feel like listening to the media harp on how his return to Columbus resulted is a loss to the lowly Blue Jackets.

But what if the "walk out" actually had nothing to do with anger at all? What if Torts left the arena without speaking to the media to simply enact a strategy? What strategy you ask? The strategy of getting the fans and media focused on him and not the play of the team during the game. I think it's pretty fair to say that everyone that watched the game had quite a few flashbacks to the Flyers of 2020/21 and 2021/22 with certain plays committed. It's also worth noting that the teams record this season is eerily similar to the record they had at this point(game number wise) in the season in both 2020/21 and 2021/22. So despite how poor this team was expected to be before the season started, after the "hot" start fans and media alike are bound to think "here we go again" when they see a game like last night and harp on every mistake they saw. It's just what's in Philadelphians nature to do when it comes to their sports teams.

Tortorella is well known to be a hard nosed coach that will call his players out in the locker room with no problem, but has refused to do so within the media. He's said to be "protective" over his players, even when he's butting heads with them. So then, with the team in Columbus, Tortorella's former stomping grounds, after a flashback-driven performance by his current team, it made it quite easy for Torts to deflect all the attention off the team by "walking out" without speaking with the media to "protect" his players from the scrutiny of the "Gaudreau helps Jackets beat his home town team" headlines, or even the subplots of "Flyers looked eerily similar to the previous two years teams, is there reason for concern?".

Tortorella came to Philly with the understanding this team would not be an "over night sensation". It should also be remembered that it has been well documented throughout this past summer that Torts WANTED to come to Philly to coach even before the offer was officially made to him. While he can no doubt be frustrating for players, fans and media a-like, and usually for different reasons to each party listed above, there is no denying he is a highly intelligent coach that has shown over the years that he knows exactly what buttons to press and how to get his job done. He's successfully coached teams that shouldn't be in the playoffs, into the first round, and on an occasion or two, even beyond that; he has coached teams that probably had no business anywhere in the Stanley Cup discussion, into the Conference Finals of the playoffs and subsequently the Stanley Cup conversation, and he has of course, also personally won the ever elusive Stanley Cup as the head coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004.

At this point in his career, it's abundantly clear Tortorella knows exactly what he's doing. So could last night's "walk out" have been anger? Sure, it could have been. But could it have also been strategy? Signs say that possibility is also highly likely.