After undeniable regression in Year 3 under John Tortorella, the Flyers fired their head coach on Thursday morning.
Associate head coach Brad Shaw will take over as head coach on an interim basis. Keith Jones, the Flyers’ president of hockey operations, and Danny Briere, the team’s general manager, will meet with the media to discuss the move at 5 p.m. on Thursday evening before their game against Montreal.
“Today I made the very difficult decision to move on from John as our head coach,” said Briere in a statement released by the team. “John played a vital role in our rebuild. He set a standard of play and re-established what it means to be a Philadelphia Flyer. John’s passion on the bench was only equaled by his charitable work in our community.
“As we move into the next chapter of this rebuild, I felt this was the best for our team to move forward. I’d like to thank John for his tireless work and commitment to the Flyers.”
Even though the organization had been embracing a rebuilding mindset, particularly down the stretch, it was just 28-36-9 in its third season with Tortorella behind the bench. The year prior, the Flyers had themselves in a playoff race but collapsed down the stretch.
The final straw for Tortorella may have come after a 7-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday, after which Torts looked defeated in front of the assembled media.
“There’s certainly going to be some frustration,” Tortorella said. “This falls on me. I am not really interested in learning how to coach this type of season where we’re at right now, but I have to do a better job. So this falls on me, getting the team prepared to play the proper way until we get to the end.”
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Tortorella’s club dropped 11 of its last 12 games and was outscored 52-21. It won just six times in its final 25 games.
In an exclusive interview with NBC Sports Philadelphia just last week, Tortorella discussed his future with the club.
“I’m a realist, I know there’s going to be a certain time when it’s time for another voice and Danny’s going to have to make that call,” Tortorella said. “But I’m going to coach the team the way I think it should be coached, I’m not going to make decisions to try to keep my job; I’m going to make decisions to try to do the best for this organization. And when it’s my time, Danny’s going to let me know.”
For whatever reason, the Flyers no longer resembled a tough-to-play-against team, a standard that was lost when Tortorella took over and reidentified under his leadership.
“We’re just not working as a group,” Travis Sanheim said this October. “Last year, the reason we were so successful was it was five-man units, one after another, every line. We had an identity, we were working hard. Other teams knew that. Maybe I guess that’s part of it, is teams are aware of our success that we had last year in doing that.
“We just need to put our heads down, go to work, get to the dirty areas. Last year, we were throwing pucks from awkward angles and getting those extra rebounds. We’re just not seeing that right now. It’s something that we’ve got to change pretty quickly because the way we’re going, it’s not a good path.”
Tortorella was summoned in June 2022 after the Flyers went through a disastrous, 57-loss season, one of the worst in franchise history. The old-school, straight-shooting coach did impressive work in getting the Flyers to be significantly more competitive and respected. They made a 14-point jump in his first season and then a 12-point jump in Year 2.
This is a breaking news story and it will be updated.
