John Tortorella takes tablets off the Flyers’ bench

There are many types of hockey coaches. John Tortorella from the Philadelphia Flyers is one of the most unique and consistent coaches. He has now imposed his own way of thinking.

His latest crusade was against iPads on the bench. These tablets are used by coaches and players to view plays in real time. An iPad and other tablets are commonplace behind the National Hockey League benches. Instead of waiting between periods for any type of video analysis or review, they can be used immediately.

Their incorporation around the league has received generally positive feedback, but not from Tortorella, who has finally banned them from the Flyers’ bench.

“I think it’s a major problem with us, understanding the momentums of the game,” said Tortorella. “You can’t understand the momentum of the game if you’re looking at the iPad all the time. We took them off and aren’t even going to use them so that they watch the game and see what’s next.”

Philadelphia has won six of the last seven games, indicating that this decision was a positive one. Although they are still in the second-to-last spot of the highly competitive Metropolitan Division, their new focus has led to a career year for forward Travis Konecny. Konecny is well-known around the club as he frequently refers to the devices on his bench.

“Everyone was chirping me because I’m always watching them, but I don’t care.” Konecny joked after a hat trick performance in the Flyers’ 5-3 win over the Washington Capitals.

“He might’ve been upset that the iPads were gone tonight,” forward Scott Laughton said about his teammate. “He’s pretty good at looking at it after every shift.”

The Canadian center has good reason to brush off those comments, scoring nine goals and picking up another five assists during Philadelphia’s run of good form.

There’s no telling whether this could help the Flyers push for a wild-card spot in the second half of the season, but if they continue this run of form, then we could have one of the all-time great turnarounds in recent memory.

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