As the Flyers limp toward the regular season's finish line, some began to wonder whether John Tortorella would make it another season. His most recent post-game comments only fueled the fire.
And turns out this was enough for the Flyers as they have relieved Tortorella of his head coaching duties with nine games remaining in the season.
”Today I made the very difficult decision to move on from John as our head coach," General manager Danny Briere said in a press release. “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. 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."
In his almost three seasons with the Flyers, Tortorella's record with the team was 97-107-33. They will miss the playoffs for the fifth straight season, two of those coming before Tortorella's arrival. The Flyers have lost six straight and are 1-10-1 in their last 12 games. They have a power play near the bottom of the league and have the league's worst save percentage.
In his place, assistant coach Brad Shaw will take over as interim for the rest of the season.
John Tortorella fired as Brad Shaw takes over Flyers
This is a great opportunity for Shaw to audition to become the Flyers' next head coach. He's been a head coaching candidate in previous years, but Philadelphia was reluctant to let him go. This could be why they held onto him. Shaw is best known for the work he has done with the Flyers' defense.
Most notably, he’s helped the likes of Nick Seeler and Rasmus Ristolainen as the two have become an important part of the team's defense. It’s Shaw’s work that also helped the penalty kill at times, though it’s not quite at the strength it was last season. Last year, the PK was ranked fourth in the league and had a league-leading 16 shorthanded goals. This year, it is ranked 17th and has just three shorthanded goals.
This is not the first time Shaw has been a head coach at the NHL level. He served as the interim head coach at the end of the 2005-06 season with the Islanders. The team went 18-18-4 in the games that he coached. Shaw also coached the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks in the AHL from 2002-05. And before that, he was a head coach in the International Hockey League with the Detroit Vipers in 2000-01.
Shaw has been around the league as an assistant coach since the 2005-06 season. He’s been a part of the Islanders, Blues, Blue Jackets, and Canucks.