Unbelivable; Shocking news: The Philadelphia Flyers head coach has scanned his team and sacked two more filthy, selfish players.
Unbelivable; Shocking news: The Philadelphia Flyers head coach has scanned his team and sacked two more filthy, selfish players.
NEW YORK (AP) — Following a game misconduct, Philadelphia Flyers coach John Tortorella refused to leave the bench area, displaying unprofessional behavior toward the officials. The NHL punished him on Sunday with a two-game suspension and a $50,000 fine.
Reluctantly, Tortorella left the bench on Saturday night following the Flyers’ 7-0 loss to Tampa Bay, for which he was given a game misconduct and a bench minor early in the contest.
Just 10:49 into the game, after Philadelphia had fallen behind 4-0, Tortorella received the penalties, on a night that honored the 2004 Stanley Cup-winning Lightning team that he coached.
After voicing his dissatisfaction with the officials, Tortorella repeatedly threatened to stay with referees Wes McCauley and Brandon Schrader. After giving in after a few minutes, he headed to the changing area. Brad Shaw, an associate coach, took Tortorella’s place.
Tortorella will not be present at the San Jose and Toronto home games on Tuesday and Thursday, respectively.
After losing four straight and eleven of their previous 14 games, the Philadelphia Flyers fired Coach Dave Hakstol and named Scott Gordon as their interim replacement.
Less than two weeks after taking over for the fired Ron Hextall, general manager Chuck Fletcher made the announcement on Monday.
“I have decided to relieve Dave Hakstol of his duties as head coach after we had a meeting this morning and gave it some serious thought,” Fletcher stated. “After giving the group more thought, I believe that this is the best course of action for us going forward.”
The final position Flyers are 12-15-4 after losing five straight games. On the trip Fletcher said he would use to assess Hakstol and the rest of the coaching staff, Philadelphia finished 1-3-1.
Hakstol, who was hired by Hextall in 2015 after graduating from the University of North Dakota, led the Flyers to the postseason twice in his three full seasons, but both times they were eliminated in six games in the opening round. Long winning and losing streaks were a problem for his teams, and this ultimately cost him his job in his fourth season.
The Flyers had not announced when they planned to bring on a full-time coach. Joel Quenneville, a three-time Stanley Cup winner who was fired by the Chicago Blackhawks last month, has been connected to Philadelphia.
Gordon, who spent a portion of three seasons coaching the Islanders, has been the head coach of Philadelphia’s top affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, in the American Hockey League for the past three plus seasons.
“He’s Defenseman Andrew MacDonald, who played for Gordon with the Islanders, said of him, “He’s got some creative ways of thinking the game.” When I was in New York, we were moving from an older to a younger team, and we had a really young team. He found himself in a somewhat difficult situation. He was attempting to quickly introduce some of his philosophies and new ideas. As a coach, I thought Scott was great. He’s a good man with good systems, and I believe he’ll work well for us.
Hakstol’s last game was a Saturday night 5-1 loss in Vancouver. He expressed his belief that his players battled throughout the crushing defeat. It was “not good enough, obviously, because,” he continued.
