Flyers fans react to the firing of head coach John Tortorella
After Tortorella's ‘I’m not really interested’ remarks, some fans saw the writing on the wall.
John Tortorella is officially done as head coach of the Flyers after nearly three seasons behind the bench.
The move came just 36 hours after Tortorella took the blame for a 7-2 loss in Toronto to the Maple Leafs.
“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,” Tortorella said. “This falls on me.”
With the Flyers near the bottom of the NHL standings in 2024-25 and finishing up a fifth season without a playoff berth, the team is still in the middle of its long rebuild. But a number of fans pointed to Tortorella’s quote from Tuesday as a sign he was done in Philadelphia.
A number of fans were excited about the team going in a different direction, especially due to Tortorella’s frequent and sometimes unexplained benchings of young players like Matvei Michkov and Cam York.
Some pointed out that the goaltending did not exactly put Tortorella in a position to succeed. The Flyers allow 3.44 goals per game, 28th in the NHL.
But most fans felt it was the right decision to move in another direction ...
... despite Tortorella’s funnier moments.
And, of course, with the firing coming on the morning of Phillies opening day, many people made the obvious Nick Castellanos joke.