Chris Pronger weighs in on John Tortorella’s communication issues

The former Philadelphia Flyers defenseman shared his thoughts on how John Tortorella is treating Cam York.

A former Philadelphia Flyer has shared his thoughts on the current situation behind the bench. Oh boy, this is going to be good.

Hall of Fame defenseman Chris Pronger logged into Twitter this week — as he often does, seemingly every hour of the day — and replied to PHLY’s Charlie O’Connor’s post about Cam York being a healthy scratch over the weekend and how he responded publicly. To boil it all down to a hyper-condensed version of drama, York was up in the press box after some poor play and instead of communicating with the young defenseman about why he was not playing, he just didn’t. York disagreed with his decision and was left in the dark as to why it was made, so he was just a little peeved.

Pronger then rightfully brought up a similar-enough situation from last season and wanted Tortorella to be held accountable for his lineup decisions and explain them.

As Charlie points out in a reply, Tortorella did provide multiple reasons as to why captain Sean Couturier was not in the lineup during that controversial healthy scratch last season. This situation is different. York is younger, still needs development, and was not given enough communication for his liking.

Pronger further explained, in a separate reply, that he’s not so concerned with Tortorella’s approach with the media, but rather what goes on behind closed doors. “Not so much worried about the him being open with the media more so with the player so they can try and make the necessary changes,” Pronger tweeted. “When the player comes out and says they don’t know and haven’t been communicated to that is a problem.”

And the former Flyers blueliner continued to doubt the current coach’s ability to stay persistent through an entire season, saying it was the same as last year, where Tortorella is apparently losing the locker room as the season comes to an end.

Pronger does know his way around some of the most old-school and most successful coaches in the NHL. While in Philadelphia, he only experienced Peter Laviolette behind the bench, but he was able to win a Stanley Cup with traditionalist Randy Carlyle behind the bench. And earlier with the St. Louis Blues, Pronger was led by Joel Quenneville and then maybe the most notorious coach in hockey, Mike Keenan. Those are some names, but of course he also understands more than we will ever know, what it takes for a young defenseman to learn and to grow in this league.

There seems to be a growing sentiment among this fan base and general attitude around the Flyers, that Tortorella’s schtick is getting tiresome. There is just always some young player in his doghouse and sitting from games, watching them from the press box, as some learning exercise. We are in no place to make a concrete critique of what he should or shouldn’t do, but maybe it just would be better to actually communicate with your players about your decision to do something as big as sitting them for a game, instead of leaving them feeling ultimately confused. That’s just in any workplace.

Around his scratching, York already stated clearly about how he plays for his teammates and the logo on the front of his sweater. No mention of anything else. Not to read into it further, but maybe that just says it all right there.