Flyers management source: 'Torts is not leaving the bench'
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It appears head coach John Tortorella's job is safe with the Philadelphia Flyers, despite their sudden downturn to end the season.
“Torts is not leaving the bench,” a Flyers management source told TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger.
The Flyers are winless in their past eight games and have fallen out of a playoff spot, which they sat in for most of the year.
Tortorella described the Philadelphia Flyers latest loss as "rock bottom" as the Montreal Canadiens dominated them in a 9-3 victory on Tuesday night.
“They need to answer the questions,” Tortorella said of his team after the blowout loss.
“I don’t question their effort because it’s been a strong group all year long,” he added. “I’m frustrated for them because this was rock bottom tonight for us and I hate to see us at this time of year be playing this way after all the good minutes we’ve put in throughout the year.”
With just three games left in their season, the Flyers are two points back of the Washington Capitals for the final wild-card spot with one more game played, with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings sandwiched between them.
Philadelphia missed the postseason last year in their first season under Tortorella, finishing with a 31-38-13 record. The team has a 36-32-11 record this season.
The Flyers will close out their season with games against the New York Rangers, New Jersey Devils and the Capitals.
“We made a lot of mistakes. Turnovers, coverages, any part of the game there were mistakes,” Tortorella continued after Tuesday's loss. “You’ve got to eat it and we’ve got to stay together and try to solve things.
“Whether it’s enough time to do what we want to do to try to get in, I’m not concerned about that. I’m concerned about just being pros trying to get some of our dignity back.”