‘A long ways to go,’ accountability and more in takeaways on Tortorella, Briere originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
VOORHEES, N.J. — A little over two weeks ago, John Tortorella, sitting at the same press conference table, fervently pleaded for his rebuilding Flyers to face the moment.
His team was scuffling and teetering the brink of squandering a surprise postseason push.
On Friday, a day before the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Tortorella and his general manager were facing the media and discussing the Flyers’ 2023-24 season being finished.
Tortorella’s club would eventually stabilize but not before the damage was done. The Flyers lost nine of their last 11 games (2-7-2) and were eliminated on the final day of their regular season. The slide started around mid-February as the Flyers dropped 19 of their last 28 games (9-14-5), a stretch in which they won consecutive games only once.
Now the Flyers have another important offseason ahead of them, the club’s second under GM Danny Briere and president of hockey operations Keith Jones. The franchise has missed the playoffs in four consecutive years.
“I’m a little frustrated that I couldn’t get the team to close the deal, that’s what we wanted to do,” Tortorella said Friday. “It was a concern of mine 25 games left or so in the season, can we stay with it? I think it’s my job to get it to the end. I think the team played hard right until the end. I just did not close the deal. Was the messaging right at certain times?
“There are a lot of things that run through my mind as a coach when you’re that close and then you don’t get there. So that’s something I’ve got to evaluate over the summer.”
Tortorella and Briere held separate end-of-the-season press conference Friday. Let’s get into our five takeaways:
1. ‘I am totally in until …’
It was fair to question Tortorella’s future as the Flyers’ head coach when the team had a season-worst eight-game losing streak at the worst possible time. Especially when that skid was punctuated by a 9-3 eyesore to the Canadiens, the worst loss in Tortorella’s two years behind the Flyers’ bench.
But, in the grand scheme, the Flyers had overachieved significantly up to that point, they answered their coach’s call after that game and played a meaningful regular-season finale.
Briere backed his veteran coach Friday.
“Torts is fantastic to work with,” the 46-year-old GM said. “We have a great relationship, it was easy to talk to him, he’s very open as far as taking…