The Philadelphia Flyers announced today that John Tortorella was relieved of his duties as Head Coach, thus firing him in the end.
“Today I made the very difficult decision to move on from John as our head coach. John played a vital role in our rebuild. He set a standard of play and re-established what it means to be a Philadelphia Flyer,” Briere states in the Flyers press release. “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.”
“On behalf of the entire Flyers organization, we would like to thank John for his dedication over the past three seasons,” Flyers’ Governor Dan Hilferty and President of Hockey Operations Keith Jones said, via the Flyers press release. “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.”
Tortorella had played a major role for the Flyers, and he was a great coach. This decision was very difficult for Briere to make, as Tortorella was the voice behind the bench and even posed as the Flyers General Manager at times. In the end, weird benchings and crazy comments via his post-game presser, eventually led to this road for him to be terminated.
Brad Shaw has been tabbed as Interim Head Coach for the rest of the season. Everyone knows the Flyers won’t make the playoffs this year, and that is why so many are shocked by the timing of this move. The youth deserve a fair voice, and it’s quite obvious Tortorella lost the locker room.
Check out our Flyers Nitty Gritty Store
