Brad Shaw reveals John Tortorella left a note for his team and players after being fired by Philadelphia Flyers

The Philadelphia Flyers chose to move in a new direction with the firing of coach John Tortorella, despite there only being 10 games left in the 2024-25 NHL regular season.

General manager Daniel Briere came to the decision following a crushing 7-2 defeat of his team by the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Flyers replaced Tortorella with associate coach Brad Shaw, who takes over the head coaching responsibilities on an interim basis for the remainder of the season.

According to Shaw, Tortorella left a note for the players and the coaches as a final token of his appreciation for his time with the organization.

Shaw said on Friday that Tortorella “left a note in our (coaches) room and in the players’ room when he came and got his stuff. That’s the type of guy he is.”

In his debut as interim Flyers head coach, Shaw led the team to a 6-4 win over the Montreal Canadiens at Wells Fargo Center. He and the Flyers will be in action against the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday.

John Tortorella got honest following what would be his final game as Flyers coach

Following their 7-2 embarrassing defeat against the Toronto Maple Leafs, John Tortorella became totally honest when talking about being the head coach of a rebuilding team like the Philadelphia Flyers.

"When you're in this type of situation and you're losing all the time," Tortorella said, "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. 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."

This may have been the final straw for Philadelphia GM Daniel Briere and the rest of the Flyers management team, who decided to make the change promptly rather than wait out the rest of the regular season schedule.

Tortorella, who was hired by the Flyers in 2022, went 97-107-33 during his tenure as head coach. Despite his efforts, he was unable to lead the team to the playoffs.

The Flyers are 29-36-9 and are in last place in the Metropolitan Division; they won't be in the playoffs this season. The last time they qualified was 2020; they participated in the postseason "bubble" in Toronto during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.