John Tortorella is happy to reunite with Mike Sullivan on the U.S. hockey coaching staff
The two have been coaching partners in several cities. Now, however, Sullivan is the head coach and the teacher has become the student.
MONTREAL — A few weeks ago, when John Tortorella was asked about the attire for the American coaches at the 4 Nations Face-Off, he let out a sigh.
The coach typically wears a black zip-up jacket dotted with a small Flyers logo pin on the left side. In November, he famously wore a hoodie with a camouflage Flyers logo on Military Appreciation Night — and kept wearing it as the team went on a winning streak, much to the chagrin of other NHL coaches.
» READ MORE: Flyers have a superstitious dress code. It’s led to a winning streak: ‘It’s working. Keep doing it.’
As the bench boss, he not only dictates the style of play on the ice but the style of clothes on the bench. But that’s not his call while he serves as an assistant coach on the United States’ staff, so there he was on the bench Thursday night sporting a suit and a red tie for the time since the 2023 preseason.
Luckily, the guy who wanted Tortorella aboard is Mike Sullivan.
“I thought I’ve had my chances. I’ve done it. I think other people need to get a turn,” Tortorella said in December. “But when it comes to Mike Sullivan ... that’s what kicked it over for me, was Sully called. Sully calls, I’ll do anything for that guy, he means that much to me.
“So country and Sully, it’s a no-brainer for me. Very honored.“
Tortorella has been in the NHL ranks since 1989-90 when he was the assistant coach on Rick Dudley’s staff in Buffalo. He was with the Sabres until 1995 when he headed to their American Hockey League team in Rochester, N.Y., to be the head coach. (That’s where the now-famous picture of Tortorella in a red, white, and blue tracksuit is from. No word on whether he still has it.)
After a few more NHL assistant coaching stints with Phoenix and the New York Rangers — he was elevated to head coach after John Muckler got fired — he became the head coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2000.
There, the Tortorella coaching tree grew a new limb with Sullivan’s name carved on it.
“We’re very different personalities, but the attention to detail and the diligence and the preparation on how to prepare a team and run a team, I think I learned a lot from John in all the years that I that I worked with him,” Sullivan told The Inquirer. “We share a common philosophy on how to run a hockey team.”
Sullivan became Tortorella’s assistant coach in 2007-08 in Tampa Bay and was his right-hand man for the U.S. at the 2008 IIHF World Championship. He continued on with Tortorella when he shifted to the Rangers for parts of five seasons and the one year in Vancouver with the Canucks.
But as their days were counting down in Canada, they decided to split up. Sullivan went to the Chicago Blackhawks for a season, winning a Stanley Cup as a player development coach.
In 2015, he became the head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins farm team in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton before he was named a midseason replacement for the big club. Sullivan won his first of two straight Stanley Cups that season and has now been in Western Pennsylvania for 10 seasons.
“He grinded away until he got his opportunity and that’s what I respect about that guy, is he’s not afraid of that stuff,” said Tortorella, who reunited with Sullivan at the 2016 World Cup. “He understands that you need to continue evolving as a coach. He’s one of my best buddies, if not the one, and I’ve learned so much from him.”
The admiration and respect is mutual.
Sullivan joked Monday after the Americans' first practice in Quebec for the 4 Nations Face-Off that Tortorella was the Obi-Wan Kenobi of the all-New England coaching staff, which includes John Hynes and David Quinn. “He’s the old, wise man,” Sullivan said with a smile. “He’s got a wealth of experience to draw on.”
» READ MORE: After the anthem is booed, U.S. team comes out fighting in 4 Nations Face-Off victory over Canada
That wealth of experience has helped Tortorella across his more than 30 years of coaching in the NHL.
The Flyers coach, who will turn 67 in June and is the oldest coach in the league, has prided himself on evolving his coaching style over the years. It is a key component he has passed on to Sullivan, 56, who “wanted to define everything that went on that ice” and “dotted every i and crossed every damn t” in his early days.
That evolution — and some would say mellowing — of the grizzled coach has also impressed Sullivan.
“The game hasn’t passed him by,” Sullivan said. “He’s been in the game a long time, but he’s a hands-on coach. The way the game is being played today in the NHL is very different than it was being played 15 years ago.
“And he is current, and he evolves with the game, not just the strategies, in the X’s and O’s, but also the athletes. Today’s players are very different in how they tick, and Torts, he understands people, and that’s why he gets the most out of them.”
Tortorella and the Flyers wrapped up their schedule before the 4 Nations break with a 3-2 win against Sullivan and his Penguins at the Wells Fargo Center. The ultra competitive “alpha males,” as Sullivan called the four men on the USA Hockey coaching staff, are seeing a role reversal for the first time.
The student has become the teacher.
And how will the teacher respond?
“I am a [stinky] assistant coach,” Tortorella chuckled.
When told of Tortorella’s self-assessment, Sullivan said with a wry smile: “He’s lying. ... He’ll be a very good assistant coach.”
“I worked a long time for him, and we had our successes, we had our challenges, and we went through a lot together as a pair and a coaching staff,” Sullivan added. “I just have so much respect for how hard he works at his craft, how much he cares about everything that we went through, how much he cares about winning.
“This role reversal, for me is a unique experience, and I’m grateful to him for everything that he’s done for me over the years. He’s helped me become the coach I am today.”
Sullivan stresses that the public persona of Tortorella does not define who he truly is. But there is no denying he has fire and intensity when it comes to the game. It was on full display Saturday night in the Americans' physical, grinding 3-1 win against archrival Canada. He was seen yelling on the bench, dropping a curse word or two at the referees, and emphatically pumping up his guys after a big-time play. It was a textbook Tortorella game.
But he is the assistant coach this time around. Whatever the role, Tortorella is honored to not only help Sullivan but represent his country once again. For Tortorella, who has a son who has served in the military for more than a decade, any chance to represent the red, white, and blue is special.
“It’s an honor,” Tortorella said. “The back nine in my career, pretty much close to being done with it, and to be able to do it with your country again, and do it one of my best friends, absolutely, I love it.”