The Philadelphia Flyers have fired Head Coach John Tortorella. The team has missed the playoffs for the fifth consecutive season and has one of the worst records in the Eastern Conference. The Flyers announced Tortorella’s dismissal Thursday and said Associate Coach Brad Shaw would take over as interim head coach.
Rebuilding Philadelphia Flyers Fire John Tortorella
Tortorella had coached the Flyers for the past three seasons, going 97-107-33 as Philadelphia was rebuilding throughout his tenure. His firing comes with Philadelphia on a six-game losing streak and losing 11 of its past 12. The coaching change came after the Flyers lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs 7-2 putting Philadelphia’s record at 28-36-9, worst in the Metropolitan Division.
General Manager Daniel Briere said in a statement “Today I made the very difficult decision to move on from John as our head coach, “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. As we move into the next chapter of this rebuild, I felt this was the best for our team to move forward.”
The Philadelphia Flyers have gone 97-107-33 in the past three seasons under Tortorella. They have tried to rebuild the team, but it has fallen short of success. The Philadelphia Flyers were on a six-game losing streak and had lost 11 of 12 games.
Tortorella said in a statement: “It’s my job to prepare this team in this type of situation, haven’t done a good enough job the past couple games, When you’re in this type of situation and you’re losing all the time and there’s nothing at the end of the tunnel for you, there’s certainly going to be some frustration.”
Tortorella has coached in the NHL for the past 23 seasons with the New York Rangers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Vancouver Canucks, Columbus Blue Jackets and Flyers. Tortorella is 770-648-165 with 37 ties. He’s ninth all-time in wins, and second among United States-born coaches after Peter Laviolette (841).
Final Thoughts
The Philadelphia Flyers will be under Shaw for the rest of the season until they hire a new head coach this offseason. Shaw will coach his second NHL team. He was also the assistant coach for the Vancouver Canucks, Columbus Blue Jackets and St Louis Blues.
Tortorella is the fifth coach this NHL season to be fired along with Jim Montgomery (Boston Bruins on Nov. 19), Drew Bannister (St. Louis Blues, Nov. 24), Luke Richardson (Chicago Blackhawks, Dec. 5), and Derek Lalonde (Detroit Red Wings, Dec. 26).
