What can be the biggest difference defensively for Flyers under Rick Tocchet

Photo Credit: Heather BarryFor the better part of three full seasons, former Philadelphia Flyers head coach John Tortorella had a standard he demanded on everyone who wore a Flyers jersey: play hard, compete on every shift, and block shots when the opportunity required you to do so.

A joke could be made here about how the goaltenders were exempt from that but let’s carry on. If you were defending in your own zone, you needed to get a skate, knee, thigh, shoulder, shin or some part of your body between the puck and the net. Tortorella essentially made it a pre-requisite regardless of what position you played, your cap hit or how offensively gifted you were. You blocked shots. Then blocked…