PHILADELPHIA – In the end, it was a multiple of issues which ultimately cost John Tortorella his position as head coach of the Flyers.
So said general manager Daniel Briere on Thursday night during a pre-game press conference at the Wells Fargo Center.
Tortorella was relieved of his duties on Thursday morning and replaced for the final nine games of the season by associate coach Brad Shaw.
Briere said the decision to let Tortorella go only came together in the last few days. But there’s a sense that there were factors in place dating back before that.
The Flyers are about to miss the Stanley Cup playoffs for a fifth straight season and currently reside in last place in the Metropolitan Division. It will be a big step back from last season when the Flyers held a playoff spot for 124 days before a late collapse.
Philadelphia entered Thursday night’s game on a six-game (0-5-1) winless streak.
“We’ve seen this team play hard, they’ve shown a no-quit attitude,” Briere said. “And ‘Torts’ was a very big season for that, the standard that he set.
“Unfortunately at this time I thought it was time for us to go in a different direction. I know we have nine games left but they are nine important games for us. I’m looking forward to evaluating our team and continuing to build this team for this summer. Thanks to Torts for what he did for us.”
The timing of the decision was interesting. Briere could have waited until the end of the season to make the transition.
“I felt it was time,” Briere said. “It was not one thing. It was a series of things that happened. Probably a little bit more in the last three weeks. It escalated around the trade deadline (March 7).”
Whether the coach and his players had a communication problem remains to be seen. Any NHL coach knows the message starts to grow thin after three seasons unless there’s a lot of success.
After Tuesday’s 7-2 loss at Toronto, Tortorella took much of the blame for the recent tailspin, saying he needed to do a better job.
“It (the comments) is one of the things that happened along the way,” Briere acknowledged. “That’s not the specific reason. It’s one of the things that have happened along the way. Don’t just focus on that.
“I’m not going to get into the specifics we dealt with. That’s not fair for ‘Torts.’ We both have opinions, that doesn’t mean mine is better than his is. We just have some different opinions on different things.”
Briere said those comments in Toronto might have been made in frustration.
“I think probably it was more the frustration of the game, getting shellacked in Toronto,” Briere said. “The embarrassment we all felt.”
There was speculation the Flyers might ask Tortorella to fulfill the last year of his contract (2025-26, $4 million) by taking a position in management. That, according to Briere, never happened.
It didn’t come as a surprise to Briere.
“He’s a complicated man, a complicated coach,” Briere said. “He’s a blast to work with because he challenges you. I truly believe he made me a better GM. I loved working with him and I believe he loved working with me. He’s not a ‘yes’ man. He earned his right to share his opinion.”
That worked for three years but time ran out.
“We listened to him,” Briere said. “But again, myself, (president of hockey operations) Keith Jones, (governor) Dan Hilferty, we felt at this time it was time to move in a different direction.”
No doubt the trades (or releases) of a number of key players, including Kevin Hayes, Tony DeAngelo, Morgan Frost, Joel Farabee and Scott Laughton in the past couple years played a role in where the Flyers stand at the moment.
“The reality is there were trades that we needed to make to set us up for the future,” Briere said. “ ’Torts’ was on board with that, he understood that was part of the plan, part of the phase of the rebuild we were in. So that was not an issue.”
Briere said he understood how all the losing could start to wear on Tortorella. For his stint with the Flyers, Tortorella was 97-107-33. For this season: 28-36-9.
“Not just on him, all of us,” Briere said. “It’s not easy. That’s probably the toughest part of the rebuild. I really hope this is rock bottom. Trades were tough, and not really replacing them. A lot of callups, younger guys. That makes it tough for the team, the coaches. That was taking a toll on all, Torts included.”
Briere said he hopes it’s going to start getting better now.
“It’s going to take time,” he said. “But I feel we’re stepping into a different phase of rebuild.”
The GM made it clear the decision had nothing to do with the players. He said he didn’t get any input from the players.
As for a possible rift with young players such as Matvei Michkov, Briere shook his head.
“He (Tortorella) I think did a great job with the young guys,” Briere said. “His approach to them really helped a lot of young guys out.”
