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Flyers fire John Tortorella, name Brad Shaw interim head coach

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Summer Rose said:
"Relieved of his duties" in official nuance. That implies that it was involuntary, even if his statement of the other day implied that he didn't really want the job anymore. That means he's not allowed to coach the team, but is still under contract and on the Flyers' payroll.
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That's how I see it. While he didn't quit, per say, he forced the issue.
 
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Oddly, I came to really like Torts this season. I think my view of him changed quite a bit after watching his willingness to state stuff bluntly that he saw as wrong or an injustice. I've said "good for you Trots" more than a couple times this year. When listening to SC, guys that have played for him always seemed to like him more than one might think. I can't remember who said it but they made a comment like "I loved playing for him because you always knew where you stood". I can appreciate that level of directness (which again, comes out in his post games too).

I did see the comments he made. Here it is for those that don't know (sorry if already posted):

"When you're in this type of situation and you're losing all the time, and there's nothing at the end of the tunnel for you, there's certainly going to be some frustration. But, this falls on me. I'm not really interested in learning how to coach in this type of season, where we're at right now. But I have to do a better job. So this falls on me, getting the team prepared to play the proper way until we get to the end."
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Honestly, I didn't think those comments were all that bad but maybe it's me who read them wrong. I took it is as "I don't want to learn how to be a coach that coaches a losing team, I want to be the coach on a winning team. I want this team to win. I don't want to be okay or comfortable with losing. I want to win."

But maybe the internal discussions are a bit different that how I read it. He's probably done coaching as a head coach unless he wants to go to a minor league or junior/NCAA but that may be the same issue he's having here - does he know how to coach this next gen of players? It's not 2005 anymore.
 
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AfroThunder396 said:
Very bad decision to hire a guy like him for a rebuild. Torts is a guy with a shelf life that you bring on to a contending team to squeeze that extra last bit of juice out of, not a guy you bring into a young team with no confidence.
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Strong disagree. Torts is a guy you bring in to teach players to play the right way.

Once he has served his purpose you bring in buddy buddy coach to open things up a bit and let the players get creative within the structure that Torts has taught them.

The Rangers did this to great effect.


Vancouver tried the opposite as per your suggestion, and that didn't work so well.
 
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AfroThunder396 said:
Very bad decision to hire a guy like him for a rebuild. Torts is a guy with a shelf life that you bring on to a contending team to squeeze that extra last bit of juice out of, not a guy you bring into a young team with no confidence.
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I feel the exact opposite.

I think he’s a guy who can come into a young team and help get them on the right path. You just gotta get him outta there pretty quick.

I also think he’s a guy who can come into a team who is in the cusp of greatness and completely derail them.

The problem is Torts agrees with you and the NHL seems to agree with me based on the jobs he’s been able to get the last decade.
 
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I like torts but after his comments Tuesday night Danny had no choice. I believe Torts was going to be let go at season's end so what's 9 games. With 10 games to go I put the Flyers at over/under 7 points to finish the season. With Tort's firing I may take the over.
 
SEALBound said:
Oddly, I came to really like Torts this season. I think my view of him changed quite a bit after watching his willingness to state stuff bluntly that he saw as wrong or an injustice. I've said "good for you Trots" more than a couple times this year. When listening to SC, guys that have played for him always seemed to like him more than one might think. I can't remember who said it but they made a comment like "I loved playing for him because you always knew where you stood". I can appreciate that level of directness (which again, comes out in his post games too).

I did see the comments he made. Here it is for those that don't know (sorry if already posted):


Honestly, I didn't think those comments were all that bad but maybe it's me who read them wrong. I took it is as "I don't want to learn how to be a coach that coaches a losing team, I want to be the coach on a winning team. I want this team to win. I don't want to be okay or comfortable with losing. I want to win."

But maybe the internal discussions are a bit different that how I read it. He's probably done coaching as a head coach unless he wants to go to a minor league or junior/NCAA but that may be the same issue he's having here - does he know how to coach this next gen of players? It's not 2005 anymore.
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One or two things here:

You're correct in how you're reading them, but that's a guy expressing that he doesn't want to accept the reality of his situation. Because the Flyers are (finally) rebuilding, and it seems to me they're going to be having "this type of season" again next season.

And the game he made those comments after was one where benched his best defenseman (York) after a first-period mistake led to a goal and then his team proceeded to allow 6 more goals after that.

Torts in Philly has been a "what's the point of this?" situation for his whole tenure, but Briere finally acted when the pointlessness became completely indefensible as it did this week.
 
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Rich Nixon said:
One or two things here:

You're correct in how you're reading them, but that's a guy expressing that he doesn't want to accept the reality of his situation. Because the Flyers are (finally) rebuilding, and it seems to me they're going to be having "this type of season" again next season.

And the game he made those comments after was one where benched his best defenseman (York) after a first-period mistake led to a goal and then proceeded to allow 6 more goals for the rest of the game.
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Are the flyers actually rebuilding though? Comcast won't like that , are they *Quietly* rebuilding without coming out and saying it?
 
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Rich Nixon said:
One or two things here:

You're correct in how you're reading them, but that's a guy expressing that he doesn't want to accept the reality of his situation. Because the Flyers are (finally) rebuilding, and it seems to me they're going to be having "this type of season" again next season.

And the game he made those comments after was one where benched his best defenseman (York) after a first-period mistake led to a goal and then proceeded to allow 6 more goals for the rest of the game.
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Yeah, there's definitely some tact you need at this point in the season.

If it's something like:
JT: I want this team to win.
DB: We stink and are going to stink next year. Learn to live with it.
JT: I don't want to coach a team that is dedicating itself to be bad.
DB: ...
JT: ...
DB: We both know.
JT: Yup, thanks for the chance.

That's understandable at least.
 
StickShift said:
As long as dinosaurs continue to own hockey teams—there will always be a demand for a coach to set the culture right.
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The “right culture” doesn’t work with today’s generation. Something most industries learned about 6 years back, but the NHL still has teams who don’t get that. Players and associates know their value and they have a certain expectation on how they’re treated or else they leave/become unengaged when their value isn’t high enough to leave.
 
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