Philadelphia Flyers Rookies Are Proof John Tortorella’s System Is Working

One of the biggest early surprises from the NHL has been the Philadelphia Flyers. They might not be taking the league by storm, but they are a respectable 7-6-2 entering play on Tuesday. That’s not bad for a team expected to be a basement dweller with hopes of the draft lottery.

A lot of credit has been given to new head coach John Tortorella. Tortorella has the Flyers buying into a new system which, much like other stops on his head coaching tour, emphasizes defense.

As Torts put it when he was hired, the Flyers need to “be harder to play against”. This may have something to do with goaltender Carter Hart’s revival, but we’re seeing it play out in another interesting area of this team.

The slightly-better-than-expected Flyers owe a lot to Tortorella.

The rookies in Philadelphia are perfect examples of Tortorella’s defensive mindset. NHL.com recently ran a piece looking at rookies within the Metropolitan Division. Two Flyers, Wade Allison and Noah Cates, were profiled, and Philadelphia was the only team with more than one player.

Neither Allison nor Cates are putting up eye-popping rookie numbers that would have the Calder Trophy in their future, but they are excelling at other aspects. Within Metropolitan Division rookies, Allison is first in hits with 42 and second in blocked shots with 14.

Among Metropolitan Division rookies, Cates is first in takeaways with 10, first in blocked shots with 18, and second in hits with 20. Cates has more blocked shots with 18 than actual shots at 14, further demonstrating a defense-first mentality.

Call plus-minus an outdated stat, but both are in the Flyers’ top five. Allison is second with a +4 with only the injured James Van Riemsdyk ahead of him. Cates is fifth at +2.

The Flyers’ loss against the Florida Panthers on October 19th was the only game so far this season in which both skaters finished with a negative rating.

Seemingly minor stats like that are one of the reasons the Flyers’ goals against per game has drastically changed for the better, going from 3.59 per game last season to 2.87 so far this season.

The Flyers do have room for improvement in shots against per game, where they currently rank 6th worst in the NHL with 34.4, a slight increase from the 34.0 they had last season. If anything, those numbers show the improvement in Carter Hart’s performance.

Another place the Flyers can improve is on the faceoff dot. Overall as a team, they’re 30th in the NHL, only winning 44.8% of the time. Allison is performing better than that, winning 50% of his face-offs in a small sample, while Coates is below the Flyers’ average at a 35.56% success rate.

Allison and Coates rank fifth and 12th on the team with their faceoff percentages, respectively.

Don’t expect the Flyers to make the playoffs. Philadelphia fans should just be happy the team is showing improvement and is better than expected. The young players being molded by Tortorella are the perfect examples of that.