John Tortorella broke a nearly six-month silence today and spoke about his March 27 firing from the Flyers. The former Flyers head coach wanted to get a few things off his chest while at the same time explaining his post-game statement following the Flyers horrid 7-2 effort days before he was fired.
“I think a coach has to change,” Tortorella told NHL.com, regarding the statement which essentially was one of the final nails in his proverbial coffin with the Flyers. “I think a coach has to show the players respect, that you’re not backing off, but you also care about the grind that they just went through and they’re done in another few weeks.”
Tortorella, who reportedly got into a heated exchange with Flyers defenseman Cam York before being axed, said he was trying to address the ups and downs that come with a regular season, especially for a team that knows it’s going to be on the outside looking regarding the playoffs for three consecutive years. However, whatever he meant to say, and the inference behind his words, were polar opposites.
“That’s what I was saying,” he said. “I don’t want to learn how to coach that way. I don’t know how to coach that way, and I don’t want to learn. If you can keep yourself out of those spots of playing to the end, you won’t be good at that. I’ve seen teams be really good playing out a season when it means nothing. You’re relaxed. I’ve seen players play better. I’ve seen coaches … I don’t want to be that guy. It was out of respect to my team that I was not doing a good job. I wasn’t.”
Tortorella also said he seemed a bit perplexed at the timing for his firing considering there were less than 10 games left and any head coaching change could’ve been made then. “It was kind of weird for me, getting fired with nine games left,” he said of the firing which put Brad Shaw in the position of interim head coach. “It really surprised me. (Briere) and I did have some disagreements on discipline of a player, had some disagreements the last few weeks of that season.”
It’s unclear what those disagreements may have been, whether a possible benching of a star player, the calling up of Aleksei Kolosov as one of four emergency call-ups, or some other issue. He also says he understood the rationale behind some of the moves Briere made leading up to the deadline, including the trading of Scott Laughton to the Leafs and veteran blueliner Erik Johnson to Colorado, effectively making the team a lot less deeper but acquiring future assets in the process.
“It was the right thing to do by Danny (to sell at the deadline),” he said. “They’re doing it the right way, and I was on board with that. But it’s hard. It’s hard for those guys, and that’s what I was trying to say after Toronto. I loved coaching them. Do I think I should have got fired for it? No. But I have too much respect for those players to kick the hell out of them right to the bitter end.”
Tortorella also said the Toronto comments may have taken him out of the loop as far as future head coaching vacancies in the National Hockey League. “Do I want to coach again? Yeah,” he said. “I heard a couple NHL coaches accuse me (of quitting on the team). Did I quit on the team after those comments I made in Toronto? I haven’t quit on a (bleeping) thing in my life. Those comments were totally taken out of (context).
“Listen, I don’t think I explained myself totally correctly, either. But I miss it already. I miss preparing (for) camp. I miss the camaraderie of camp. Yeah, I want to coach, so we’ll see what happens.”
Tortorella had a 97-107-33 record during his nearly three full years as the Flyers coach. The closest the Flyers came to the playoffs was in 2023-24 when they went from holding onto a wildcard spot to essentially falling off a cliff. Although Tortorella appeared to be the right coach to begin building a foundation for a new era in Flyers history, by year three the taskmaster’s actions and demands seemed to wear thin with the team, highlighted by captain Sean Couturier.
