Former Flyers’ Head Coach John Tortorella is known to be a hard-nosed coach, who commands the most from his players. He is not afraid of benching or calling out star studded players either. This was one reason why the majority of the Flyers team reported early for training camp for the past few seasons. They also knew that they would have to give their all to fight to stay in the lineup.
It’s become apparent as some have excelled, and some have had difficulties learning this, but on most nights the Flyers do not have a problem with effort. The team may not be talented enough to beat stiff competition or playoff bound teams on a nightly basis, but they do fight and claw their way into games nine times out of 10, “This falls on me,” Tortorella said following the loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs. “I’m not really interested in learning how to coach in this type of season, where we are at right now, but I have to do a better job. This falls on me, getting the team prepared to play the proper way until we get to the end.”
Tortorella is a competitor, and he wants to win every night. Unfortunately, his team is just not that talented, especially following the trade deadline, with moving a few key parts of the organizational leadership ladder. It appears some players are still in the fog from such, but this is the business. I think that’s what Tortorella was alluding to. His team hasn’t been fully prepared, mentally, and that herein lied the problem.
Flyers’ General Manager Danny Briere alluded to at his press conference that things with Tortorella started the spiral out of control for the past two to three weeks, following the trade deadline. Tortorella’s competitive nature, in the end, ultimately got him fired from the Flyers Head Coaching job, “Losing with regularity became very difficult for him,” Briere said yesterday at his presser.
Not winning lately solely wouldn’t get Tortorella fired, but the culmination with his post-game comments following Tuesday’s 7-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, may have been enough to get him fired. The combination of not being able to win, coupled with his post-game could have been enough to get him fired. Maybe, especially with his domineering persona.
Even then, Tortorella had meetings with Briere and President of Hockey Operations Keith Jones, following his post-game comments, obviously, a source familiar with situation told me. Something went arry, and this could have cemented Tortorella’s fate of getting terminated.
One could sense that the locker room wasn’t right on Tuesday, especially after benching young defenseman Cam York, after only playing nearly four minutes of hockey that night. A move had to be made, and something must have transpired with Tortorella and York, as York did not play in last night’s game due to disciplinary reasons. Maybe York also got into it with Brad Shaw.
This was just a wild 24-48 hours, and a crazy turn of events for a person that was supposed to move in the Flyers front office, possibly at Year’s end. Everyone knew that Tortorella was a competitor and wanted to win, but everyone also thought that he understood the process here in Philly as he spoke many times about it, with different phases of the rebuild. Honestly, I just think this locker room never recovered after benching Captain Sean Couturier last season, and Tortorella continued mysterious benchings to York and Matvei Michkov. It could be a case that players were afraid to make mistakes.
“This had nothing to do with the players,” Briere reiterated yesterday. “We didn’t get any input from the players, but at the same time, we are very close to the room. Jonesy and I are always around. We know what’s going on. Maybe not everything but we are pretty aware of what’s going on.”
Briere and Jones knew the locker room was turning, and that they had to make a move. They knew how much Tortorella wanted to win, and the team is just not talented enough to do it. Trust have had a ripple effect on the locker room.
In the end, it appears Tortorella wasn’t patient enough for the full course of the rebuild to take place, even though, he happened to be onboard with all trades, as Briere noted yesterday. With all parties fully transparent and knowing each and every step of the rebuild, what changed for Torts? If he didn’t lose the locker room, then why all the sudden would he want to win games, knowing full well they just weren’t talented enough to win after trading away multiple key cogs to the organization? It was a combination of things that led to Tortorella being terminated, not just one some thing.
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