27-03-2025
Flyers fire John Tortorella: Did they wait too long, or did he lay a foundation for success?
When the new Philadelphia Flyers' new leadership group was formally introduced on May 12, 2023, the messaging regarding coach John Tortorella, who had just completed his first season, was clear. He wasn't just going to remain in his post, but general manager Daniel Briere, president of hockey operations Keith Jones, and chairman Dan Hilferty were going to rely on him to be the day-to-day standard-bearer for what they hailed as a 'New Era of Orange.'
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Less than two years later, Tortorella is out, fired on Thursday morning near the end of his third season.
So was it the correct decision to keep him in 2023?
The unsexy answer is, it's too early to say. The Flyers were never trying to win the Stanley Cup in the short time that Tortorella was reporting to Briere. It's been all about roster subtraction, and Briere methodically has been dealing current pieces for future assets since he was put in place.
It's entirely possible that some of the habits Tortorella instilled in some young players will benefit them down the line. Tortorella demanded a certain level of competitiveness and detail from his roster, and if he didn't feel they was being met, the players suffered the consequences.
And all indications are that until Thursday, Briere was on board with how Tortorella was running things at ice level. When Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee were dealt to Calgary on Jan. 31, it removed two players from the team who were often targets of the head coach. Frost was a healthy scratch at times in each of the last two seasons despite being one of the Flyers' few serviceable centers, while Farabee also was scratched earlier this season as Tortorella attempted to get more out of the former first-round pick.
It was only a year ago that Tortorella was being mentioned as a candidate for the Jack Adams Award as the league's top coach. The Flyers were the surprise of the NHL up until mid-March, when poor goaltending, the trade of puck-moving defenseman Sean Walker, and the departure of No. 1 goalie Carter Hart all caught up with them.
Then, Tortorella was earning praise for what he was doing with a fresh-faced group that was expected to be among the league's worst. Travis Konecny found a new level, reaching a career high in points and earning an eight-year extension in the offseason. Travis Sanheim looked like a top-pair defenseman, playing responsible defense and generating offense, too. Sanheim's partner, Cam York, stepped up in the second half when Sanheim was battling through a knee injury.
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Tyson Foerster, Owen Tippett and even goalie Samuel Ersson were all developing nicely and helping to keep the Flyers in playoff position. Even players that Tortorella was hard on, such as Frost and Farabee, seemed to respond to some of the coach's sometimes-severe tactics.
Tortorella, though, can't be let off the hook for that team's dramatic collapse, which included an eight-game losing streak and a string of unfortunate headlines.
There was his getting kicked out of a game in Tampa Bay on March 9, and a subsequent two-game suspension. There was the scratching of newly minted captain Sean Couturier, coupled with what Couturier believed to be a lack of communication as to why. There was a dramatic late-game comeback on April 1, when the Flyers, playing in front of goalie Ivan Fedotov making his NHL debut in relief of Ersson, tied the New York Islanders with 10 seconds to go before succumbing in a shootout. After that game, Tortorella referred to his team as 'soft,' essentially an expletive in hockey parlance.
For most of that season, opposing coaches and pundits were quick with their praise for the Flyers' work ethic, while giving Tortorella the bulk of the credit. But as March turned to April, they seemed to sag in some late games that they should have won, even with a roster that was missing some key pieces from earlier in the season. Tortorella wears some of that.
This season, the Flyers got off to a rough start, just 1-5-1 in their first seven games. But they still played a respectable brand of hockey most nights before the post-trade deadline losing streak took hold. In fact, as recently as after a 2-1 win in Winnipeg on March 1, it wasn't out of the realm of possibility to think that the club might work its way back into the playoff conversation.
But an abysmal 1-6-0 homestand, sandwiched around the trade deadline, sealed their fate. Considering the state of the current roster, coupled with the deflation of partially blowing up the dressing room — including the loss of emotional leader Scott Laughton — there might not have been any coach who could have salvaged anything from this year's group.
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Tortorella, though, made it known after Tuesday's game, in his viral comments in Toronto, that he wasn't pleased with where the team was, and maybe he didn't know how to handle it. Benching York for the final 50 minutes of that game, despite it leaving the team with just five defensemen at the end of a 10-day road trip, spoke to that. Perhaps that more than anything was a red flag for Briere, considering some of the coach's missteps a year ago. Plus, after York was scratched from a game on March 8, he indicated that Tortorella never gave him a reason for the move, similar to what happened with Couturier last March.
Further, it's been a mixed bag this season when it comes to the young players. York, Tippett and Ersson have all been inconsistent, but guys such as Noah Cates and Jamie Drysdale are playing dramatically better lately than they were in October. Rookie Matvei Michkov, meanwhile, has not disappointed, with 51 points in 71 games headed into Thursday's game against the Montreal Canadiens.
Every indication from Briere is that the Flyers plan to start getting better next season. It seems inevitable that this offseason will be about trying to find more young pieces — a center or two remains a desperate need — and they even may fill some holes via free agency (finding a veteran goalie, in particular, seems likely).
The hope will be that Tortorella established enough of a foundation and culture with the remaining group that outside additions, whomever they may be, will enter a dressing room in which a standard has been set. If that happens, and the team reaches new heights either next season or beyond, Tortorella will be seen as having played a key role in it.
If they falter, though, that won't be the case. And Briere, Jones and Hilferty will be left wondering whether they should have cut the cord at their first opportunity.
