In Philadelphia, the what was long-assumed to have happened, did.
The Flyers fired head coach John Tortorella.
“Today I made the very difficult decision to move on from John as our head coach,” Flyers general manager Daniel Briere said. “John played a vital role in our rebuild. He set a standard of play and reestablished 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.”
The Flyers are in a death spiral, having lost 11 of their last 12 matches.
Tortorella was in his third year as head coach, and while the Flyers had shown glimpses of what they could be, there was never enough sustainable momentum to hold the job for another season.
The most recent loss was a 7-2 throttling at the hands of the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday.
“It’s my job to prepare this team in this type of situation,” Tortorella said after the game. “Haven’t done a good enough job the past couple games.”
The usual platitudes were released in statements.
“On behalf of the entire Flyers organization, we would like to thank John for his dedication over the past three seasons,” president of hockey operations Keith Jones said. “We fully support Danny’s decision in making this change as he continues to do what is needed for the future of our organization. John Tortorella has made a positive impact throughout the Flyers organization, and we are grateful and appreciative of the opportunity to work with him. We wish John, Christine and their family all the best moving forward.”
Associate coach Brad Shaw was installed as interim coach for the remainder of the season.
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