Ahead of the Leafs vs. Flyers matchup, Philadelphia head coach John Tortorella discussed Scott Laughton’s impact in Philly and his transition to a new team in Toronto.
Scott Laughton said his hotel room is close to yours.
Tortorella: He is next to me! I said, “Stay in your room, and I’ll stay in mine. I don’t even want to see you.”
What is it going to be like to see Laughton on the other side tonight?
Tortorella: When you start playing, you play. I got a chance to see him this morning. I talked to him yesterday.
It is one of the greatest things you take out of the game. When you are done or retired, or a player leaves, you always have that relationship. Scotty and I will always have that.
I got a chance to see him face-to-face earlier this morning, but when it is time to play, we play.
What was Laughton like for you off the ice in Philly?
Tortorella: The way I can explain it… He’s just full of the glue of a locker room. That’s really important — especially with where we are at as an organization and what we’re trying to build — to have that foundation guy to understand the small things before you get on the ice and help transport that over to our younger guys. I thought he was very important that way.
It’s hard for him. I know it’s been a little bit of an adjustment for him here. You’ve been with one organization for your whole career; drafted (by the Flyers), and gone through all of the crap we’ve gone through.
In talking to him, he’s just trying to keep his head down and fit in. When he’d walk into a locker room in Philly, he’d take it over. It’s been an adjustment period, and I hope people are patient with him. It’s a huge adjustment for him, but you’re going to find out what he is about, eventually.
With the tough results over the last few weeks, has the fact that Laughton hasn’t been there made it tougher for the group to deal with the adversity?
Tortorella: Especially for a guy like Scotty, and how long he had been there, and with some of the younger guys on our team… It’s a pretty young team we have here, and Scotty was a big guy as far as off-the-ice stuff, bringing them to his house and helping the kids. I think it has been an adjustment for some of the guys.
They have been very honest with me that some guys have struggled with that. I’ll give you that. There is a human part to it. But eventually, you have to start doing your stuff here.
I am not trying to criticize any player. I think it has been a major adjustment for a few players on our team with all of the changes in our locker room.
Losing [Erik Johnson] was a big one, too, for a similar reason that we talked about with Scotty as far as coming in the morning and leaning on him for how to act. It has been an adjustment.
I don’t think we’ve played poorly on this road trip. Against Chicago, we were sloppy. I don’t think we concentrated on defending the right way and made some mistakes, but in the prior games to that, we were right in the games.
We have a different lineup. Shit is going to happen. We just have to keep playing and go about our business.
What stands out the most about the way Craig Berube has the Leafs playing?
Tortorella: I don’t watch it. I don’t watch your team. I have enough things to worry about.
I know you are in good hands with Chief. I have a tremendous amount of respect for him as far as how he goes about it and his honesty. I had so much respect for him when he was a player.
We don’t watch your team play. We watch our team play and try to figure out what we need to do. We know we have our hands full tonight. We are going to try to go about it the right way.
How much energy and inspiration can you take from playing in Toronto with some of the local players on your team and now Laughton on the other side?
Tortorella: When you come here with your team, there is a lot of family from the visiting team, usually. I hope it gives us some juice. I hope we can rebound and have a better concentration level than it was against Chicago.
It is always fun playing here. I know [the Leafs] are going to come after their last game (in Nashville). Our opponent will be ready to play. We just need to go about it the proper way and be ready to go.
Because you are more plugged in than the average coach in terms of what management is thinking about the bigger picture, and also knowing you are so competitive at game time, how do you balance the two?
Tortorella: [Management and I] are in constant conversations as far as the pain we are going to feel here. When a number of players left, this was a necessary part of this rebuild. It has been talked about for over a year what this year was going to be.
Our players kept us competitive until near that deadline when everybody started leaving. We knew we were going to go through some pain. You talk about it, and you follow through. I respect that we are following through with it.
When you are in it, it sucks. It sucks for me to see the players go through it. It is a grind on us coaches, but I want the players to feel good about themselves as we keep on trying to get to the finish line. They have reason to feel good because I think they have put in some good minutes.
We left the Chicago game as players and a coaching staff and say, “Shit. We don’t want to go this way.” I hope we rebound the proper way.
When you are a coach and you are talking with the management and it is a game plan, everything is good, and we’ll follow through. But when you are in the middle of it, it is hard. It is hard for a coaching staff because you are not winning. But we just have to handle ourselves the right way, respect our athletes — they are the ones with the uniform on, going through this losing together — and try to do it the right way.
