The Nashville Predators head coach Andrew Brunette has been on some hot seats since December. However, there was not really any viable coaching candidates out on the market to replace him with. That's suddenly changed.
The NHL coaching carousel is starting up again and a surprsing axe fell in Philadelphia today as the Philadelphia Flyers parted way with head coach John Tortorella with just a handful of games left in the season. Assistant coach Brad Shaw will took over the team with the interim head coaching tag.
Tortorella might've sealed his own fate with comments made after a Monday night loss in Toronto, where the Flyers were smacked around 7-2 by the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Flyers were floundering, after looking like a wild card contender they were a lottery team with little entertainment value left,
Over the course of the last 3 seasons with Philadelphia her complied a 97-107-33 record as a coach overseeing a very open rebuild process in which the team had no real expectations. He still had a year on his contract and was expected to take the take up a notch next year to really push for a playoff spot. Then Monday night happened.
""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. But 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," he said, via Yahoo Sports.via Yahoo Sports
"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."
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Now Tortorella won a Stanley Cup in 2004 coaching the Tampa Bay Lightning, and has had various successful stops, and unsuccessful stops along the way. He was taking on a project in Philadelphia in which he partnered with GM Danny Briere and Team President Keith Jones on a public rebuild in full view of fans and the media. He guided a team that was methodically selling off pieces and getting worse on purpose. It seemed to break the gritty coach who only knows how to win and how to play hard nosed hockey.
Brunette still has a little bit of new coach glow on him. He's weathered a really bad year, but he still has some fire and vigor in him. Last week he called out the whole team. He hasn't lost the locker room or Barry Trotz for the moment, and should be in a position to come back. At this point it'd be a surprise if he didn't. He's engaged and invovled.
Torts is a good coach, but if there is a guy who needs to do some soul searching and beach sitting it is him. Purposly taking on a long rebuild left him in a situation where he's making these kind of statements publicly.
He also isn't a good fit for one of the older rosters in the league. Torts is a coach that teaches young players how to push to the next level and win in the playoffs. His hard nosed authoritarian style will be lost on a team like the Predators who don't need anyone to tell them how to play the right way.
It's tempting, but this is not the time for a quick trigger decision. This is the time to keep the faith for Bruno.