John Tortorella and the Flyers: A match made in heaven and hell

This could have worked, but it was probably never going to work.

The Philadelphia Flyers fired head coach John Tortorella on Thursday morning with just nine games to go in the regular season. Even though the Flyers’ season has gone poorly (and is getting worse), and a coaching change seemed at least possible after the season, the timing of it is still a little odd.

Interim-coach Brad Shaw probably is not going to be the guy long-term, and I am not sure there is anything he or the team can do or show over the next two-and-a-half weeks that would realistically change that.

A change to salvage the season should have happened weeks, or even months, ago.

If you just think you need a fresh start, most teams would just simply wait for the offseason.

Neither situation happened here.

On the surface, and until somebody associated with the Flyers makes a compelling case to the contrary, it seems like a mostly reactionary move to comments Tortorella made following the team’s 7-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night.

The comments in question:

"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. 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."

“I’m not really interested in learning how to coach in this type of season” is some bold honesty, even from a coach that is known for his bold honesty.

Would an NHL team really act that quickly to fire a coach for that sort of comment?

Was there something else going on behind the scenes?

Was that just the tipping point to push the organization over the edge?

Was everybody here just over everybody else?

All of it is possible.

Tortorella and the Flyers were always a fascinating match to me. He is an intense competitor, and obviously wants to win sooner rather than later. He is not built to deal well with extended periods of losing (not that anybody is), even if it is part of a bigger process and plan.

But by going to a rebuilding team — in the very early stages of a rebuild, I might add — he was never going to experience that right away. For a while, he seemed to embrace that. He seemed to love the teaching and development aspect of bringing along a young team, and at times you could see the signs of it working with a lot of elements coming together.

He said a lot of the right things in dealing with rookie sensation Matvei Michkov and not trying to change him too much, while also trying to bring out other elements of his game.

Some young players have progressed, while others have stalled.

But the roster has always had real flaws, including one massive flaw that was going to be almost impossible to overcome.

Until those flaws are addressed, the losing is going to continue. And that was eventually going to lead to a breaking point for Tortorella.

He might have essentially fired himself with his post-game comments on Tuesday.

But what led him to that point was probably that one massive flaw that has followed around the Flyers organization for the better part of its existence.

Let’s talk about it, and Tortorella as a coach.