Tortorella has a “brutal camp” planned for the Flyers.

Over his many years as a head coach in the National Hockey League, veteran head coach John Tortorella has established quite the reputation for himself. Tortorella has become known for his fiery, demanding, and unrelenting coaching style, a style that has earned him both positive accolades and much criticism over his lengthy career.

It was for this very reason that Philadelphia Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher selected Tortorella to be the next head coach of the Flyers, sensing that he was in need of a hard nosed taskmaster to work his clearly dysfunctional locker room into shape. Earlier this week, Tortorella delivered what some viewed as his opening salvo to the Flyers locker room when he publicly called out the issues he perceives in that locker room.

"As far as the room, I have major concerns about the room," said Tortorella.

"I have major concerns about what goes on in there and before we even step onto the ice, the situations, the standards and the accountability in the room is forefront. You can't get squat done on the ice until you get your room straightened out and I think we have a little bit of work to do there."

There's no question that this was a major callout on the part of the head coach and a very clear warning to the players in his locker room. On the most recent episode of the 32 Thoughts Podcast however, NHL insider Elliotte Friedman would reveal that this was only the latest salvo from the new Flyers head coach.

"I think this is the latest salvo," said Friedman on the podcast. "He's been doing this since he got there... they let the players know this is going to be a brutal camp. Apparently they sent an email to the players saying 'You better be back in town by early September and you better be ready.'"

Friedman not only believes that the players on the Flyers' roster are in for a rough camp, he believes Tortorella has been mandated to do exactly this in order to get this Flyers locker room straightened out.

"A bad start this year is not an option," said Friedman. "He's going to be hammering them from the beginning, he knows why he was hired."