Great interview on Nasty Knuckles with Frank Seravalli. The conversation starts at 24:00 and gives some insight into the Flyers unhappy locker room, the power dynamic, and why Seravalli thinks Torts is the worst coach for this team:

Lets break down the key takeaways from the interview…

Seravalli has talked to a number of players in the locker room and there are plenty that are not happy right now. 

This doesn’t seem like it’s because the team missed out on the playoffs. Seravalli mentions the Sean Couturier benching seemed to rub some people the wrong way in the locker room. He also hints at Torts’ demeanor in press conferences does the same. Like after he called the team soft postgame after they came back and grabbed a point in an OT loss against the Islanders:

@br_openice

Safe to say Torts wasn’t thrilled with how the Flyers played 😳🎙️ fy fyp hockeytiktoks nhl

♬ original sound – BR_OpenIce

Now players are going to play regardless who the coach is, but in year three it’ll be interesting to see who they keep and let go. Torts isn’t shy about calling guys out, but that’s going to wear thin with today’s hockey player the longer it keeps going on. It’s one thing to berate Garnet Hathaway it’s another to wonder what players like cornerstone pieces like Owen Tippett or Jamie Drysdale start to tune him out.

 

Torts has Dan Hilferty’s ear which might be too much power. 

Seravalli says Torts has too much power and a seat at the table. He’s involved in player discussions and trades. There are rumors that Torts wants to end up in the front office, but currently with the Flyers there isn’t anymore room. Danny Briere and Keith Jones are going nowhere. It’ll be interesting to see how the power struggle shapes up in the front office before the Torts era is all over and who Dan Hilferty sides with.

 

Tortorella doesn’t have any ability to get the most out of his guys other than pushing the big red button.

Flyers fans have their orange and black colored glasses on when it comes to Torts. He can’t do anything wrong. When you criticize Torts on social media tons of Flyers fans come to his defense and call you an idiot. He fits this old school parochial city perfectly. But in my opinion he’s not the answer for the Flyers future and I think people are going to come around to that after he’s gone in the next 12 months. The Flyers with Torts find themselves in the same boat the Sixers did with Doug Collins. Constantly a lower seeded playoff team with no chance at the title who would miss out on a franchise altering player in the lottery and wade in mediocrity. Now hockey has more parity than the NBA, but if you don’t make the playoffs like this year a Torts team is very rarely ever going to pick in the top-10. I just can’t see how this has a happy ending.

 

Seravalli thinks Torts realized he overstepped when he changed his tone late in the season.

There was the apology to Sam Ersson after he ripped him and the pregame press conference where you could see his demeanor changed:

Wonder how much that was the stress of the season and the late season slide playing out.

Awesome insight into the Flyers right now. This will be one of the most interesting off-seasons for the Flyers in a while. No matter how the Torts Era plays out in Philly we know one thing will be true. It’ll be entertaining and that’s great for us.