Tortorella Gone, But Many Flyers Problems Remain

John Tortorella has a lot of redeeming qualities, including the fact he develops a culture with his hard-driving, old-school style.

But he was the wrong fit for the Philadelphia Flyers, who dismissed the 66-year-old coach Thursday toward the end of another disappointing season.

The Flyers are still a bad team, but maybe the players will develop quicker without the fear of being benched if they make a mistake. That was a Tortorella trademark, and it didn’t seem to sit well with the players or management.

A young, rebuilding team like the Flyers needs someone who can nurture players, get the most out of their potential.

That wasn’t a strength – or the MO – of the no-nonsense Tortorella.

In three years under Tortorella, the Flyers went 97-107-33 and missed the playoffs each year. The team overachieved for most of last season, then collapsed near the end, losing eight straight and blowing a playoff spot.

Despite the addition of wunderkind Matvei Michkov, the team has regressed greatly this season. The Flyers are 28-36-9, have lost 11 of their last 12 and have the NHL’s fourth-worst winning percentage.

The Flyers will miss the playoffs for a fifth straight season, matching the worst span in franchise history.

Worse, the younger players – other than Michkov and Noah Cates – didn’t develop.

Former first-round picks Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost were traded because of their struggles.

Promising defensemen Cam York, who made a gaffe in Tuesday’s 7-2 loss in Toronto and was subsequently benched the rest of the game, and Jamie Drysdale have been extremely inconsistent.

Right winger Owen Tippett, a team cornerstone at 26, has taken a step backward. The goalies and the defense have been abysmal. Ditto the overall offense.

Tortorella sounded like he had packed in the season after Tuesday’s shellacking in Toronto.

“I’m not really interested in learning how to coach in this type of season,” he told reporters.

Maybe he meant he just hates coaching when there is nothing at stake, which is understandable. But it came across as a man who was fed up and had thrown in the towel on the season. Not a good look for the team’s leader.

Two days later, he was fired and replaced by interim coach Brad Shaw.

Yes, Tortorella won a Cup in Tampa Bay ages ago, but his teams have not been in the post-season in six of the last 10 years. Including time in Vancouver and Columbus, he has gotten past Round 1 once in the last 10 years. Those aren't great results.

Flyers GM Danny Briere said all the obligatory things after Tortorella was dismissed. He called it a “very difficult decision,” saying Tortorella played a “vital role” in the rebuild and “set the standard of play and re-established what it means to be a Philadelphia Flyer.”

From here, it means missing the playoffs, not having a true No. 1 or No. 2 center, watching too many young players regress and again searching for the dependable goalie.

Other than that, the Flyers resemble the franchise’s 1973-74 and 1974-75 Stanley Cup champs.

That’s not a slap at the current team. They try hard. They rarely get outworked. But they just don’t have the talent to compete.

Now the attention is focused on Briere, who needs to be active in the trade and free-agent markets, and do well in the draft. He has seven picks in the first two rounds in June. With the way some of those previous top choices have panned out (with other GMs in charge), maybe it’s time to deal some of those picks for established players?

Tortorella is gone, but the other problems – a lack of talent at key positions, failure to develop promising prospects – haven't gone away.

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