From conflict to Cup with Lightning, a deep dive into Flyers coach John Tortorella

‘Everyone received a headbutting’ — deep dive into the birth of Tortorella time originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

John Tortorella paused the tape. The volcano was about to erupt.

The film was focused on Vinny Lecavalier, a young, burgeoning star for Tortorella’s Lightning teams in the early 2000s.

It was time for conflict.

“As soon as we saw it, we were like, ‘Oh God, this is not going to be good,’” former Lightning winger Chris Dingman said.

But good conflict?

All part of the master plan, all part of the long game in the eyes of Tortorella.

With the entire 2005-06 Tampa Bay team watching and merely waiting for the inevitable eruption, Tortorella chewed out Lecavalier. The video showed the 1998 first overall draft pick cordially chatting up Hurricanes forward Eric Staal.

Tortorella wasn’t having it.

“Vinny Lecavalier, great player, great person,” Dingman said in an August phone interview with NBC Sports Philadelphia. “I guess maybe too nice sometimes? I don’t know.

“I think Eric Staal had just scored, there was a closeup right before the faceoff and the camera zoomed in, and you can literally see Vinny’s lips say, ‘Hey, how’s it going?’ And Staal’s like, ‘What?’ He’s like, ‘Hey, how’s it going, you’re having a good season,’ or something, something along those lines.

“So [Tortorella] just starts laying into him, like, ‘I’m just curious, what the blank are you saying to him? He just shoved it up your you know what and you’re congratulating him?’ Vinny gets mad and they’re going back and forth, you know, it was like, F you, F you, whatever.

“He was just challenging Vinny, to be honest with you. Trying to get, not more out of him, but he just did stuff like that quite a bit. … He always challenged guys.”

Tortorella was in his first full-time head coaching job at the NHL level. At 42 years old, he took over midseason in 2000-01. He turned the Lightning into a Stanley Cup champion, leading the franchise…