After what was a chaotic week in the City of Brotherly Love, things seem to have calmed down since the coaching change.
Last Thursday, the Philadelphia Flyers fired head coach John Tortorella, ending a strange saga that has featured a reported tiff between the Stanley Cup-winning bench boss and Flyers defenseman Cam York.
The team appointed former NHL blueliner Brad Shaw to be the interim head coach for the remainder of the season, and while the expectations are low for the Flyers in the closing weeks of the 2024-25 season, there’s growing optimism as the team is on its way to missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs once again.
Shaw’s tenure as the Flyers’ head coach started off with a 6-4 win over the Montreal Canadiens, a team trying to get back into a Wild Card spot, before outlasting the lowly Buffalo Sabres this past Saturday. While these “garbage time” wins might not mean much in terms of immediate success, things have been less tumultuous around the organization since Tortorella’s dismissal.
On Monday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Anthony Di Marco joined the show to talk about how things have settled down under Shaw.
Anthony Di Marco: It seems like the proof is in the pudding. Two back-to-back wins. Matvei Michkov – four goals in two games. His ice time has jumped almost four minutes per game. Some of the line combinations make a bit more sense. Michkov back into the top six, and they use that term very loosely on a team like the Philadelphia Flyers. You have York playing with Jamie Drysdale, [Nick] Seeler playing with Travis Sanheim.
It just seems like there are more decisions being made under Brad Shaw that isn’t just sticking with the same formula over and over again, trying different things. For a team like the Flyers, that we know are on the brink of officially being eliminated from the postseason, you might as well try different things and see what you have.
You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…
