John Tortorella is setting the record straight on the abrupt end to his time with the Philadelphia Flyers.

Tortorella was fired in March two days after pointing the finger at himself for a 7-2 blowout loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, which dropped the team to 28-36-9 on the season. The 67-year-old was replaced behind the bench by associate coach Brad Shaw, who went 5-3-1 the rest of the way.

Tortorella, who will serve as an assistant coach for Team USA at the Olympics in February and is hoping to coach again in the NHL, fired back at the perception he quit on the Flyers.

“Do I want to coach again? Yeah. I heard a couple NHL coaches accuse me [of quitting on the team]. Did I quit on the team after those comments I made in Toronto? I haven’t quit on a [bleeping] thing in my life. Those comments were totally taken out of [context],” Tortorella told Nicholas J. Cotsonika of NHL.com.

“Listen, I don’t think I explained myself totally correctly, either. But I miss it already. I miss preparing [for] camp. I miss the camaraderie of camp. Yeah, I want to coach, so we’ll see what happens.”

The Flyers were in the midst of a 1-8-1 stretch when Tortorella was fired, with things turning ugly as the team was outclassed in Toronto.

“When you’re in this type of situation, you’re losing all of the time, and there is nothing at the end of the tunnel for you; there’s certainly going to be some frustration,” Tortorella said after the loss. ”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. 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.”

A team source told Kevin Kurz of The Athletic that “it’s fair to say” something also happened between defenceman Cam York and Tortorella in Toronto, with it being put to him that “they probably both crossed the line.” York was benched for the entirety of the Flyers next game, Shaw’s first behind the bench.

Tortorella, who did not speak on the York incident, said his comments after that Toronto loss came in the aftermath of the Flyers being trade deadline sellers.

“I think a coach has to change,” Tortorella said. “I think a coach has to show the players respect, that you’re not backing off, but you also care about the grind that they just went through and they’re done in another few weeks.

“That’s what I was saying. I don’t want to learn how to coach that way. I don’t know how to coach that way, and I don’t want to learn. If you can keep yourself out of those spots of playing to the end, you won’t be good at that.

“I’ve seen teams be really good playing out a season when it means nothing. You’re relaxed. I’ve seen players play better. I’ve seen coaches … I don’t want to be that guy. It was out of respect to my team that I was not doing a good job. I wasn’t.

“Do I think I should have got fired for it? No. But I have too much respect for those players to kick the hell out of them right to the bitter end.

“It was the right thing to do by (general manager Daniel Briere) [to sell at the deadline]. They’re doing it the right way, and I was on board with that. But it’s hard. It’s hard for those guys, and that’s what I was trying to say after Toronto.”

Tortorella spent three seasons with Flyers and never reached the playoffs. The Flyers sat in a playoff spot for most of 2023-24 before struggling late in the year and just missing out on a wild-card berth. The regressed to being out of the playoff race for almost all of last season.

The 66-year-old Boston native joined the Flyers after coaching six seasons with the Columbus Blue Jackets from 2015 to 2021. He has a career record of 770-648-37-165 as head coach and a 56-64 record in the playoffs.

Tortorella guided the Tampa Bay Lightning to the Stanley Cup in 2003, but has only advanced past the second round once since, helping the 2012 New York Rangers to the Eastern Conference Final.