Flyers D-Man Benched After For Disciplinary Reasons Amid Reports Of Dispute With Former Coach John Tortorella

The Philadelphia Flyers firing John Tortorella was inevitable, but it sounds like there could be a bit more to the story than just the team's poor play this season.

The Flyers hosted the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday in what was their first game with interim head coach Brad Shaw leading the team, and there was something that really stood out, aside from the fact that the Flyers snapped a 6-game skid with a 6-4 win.

SIGN UP for The Daily OutKick. New Look, Same Attitude.

That was that defenseman Cam York — who dressed for the game — sat on the bench all night long, logging exactly 0:00 of ice time. 

This also came as the Flyers only dressed six blue liners, meaning they played the entire night with just five voluntarily.

After the game, Shaw was asked about this bizarre move and revealed that it was for disciplinary reasons.

What's interesting is that this tracks with a report from The Athletic's Kevin Kurz that came out on Friday morning about an alleged verbal altercation between York and Tortorella after the Flyers 7-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday in which York logged just over three minutes of ice time.

Kurz's report claims that the incident "contributed" to Tortorella's firing — which came with just nine games left on the schedule — with his source saying that both York and Tortorella "probably crossed the line."

Who knows if we'll ever find out what the specifics of this alleged incident are, but there's no question that things are bad for the Flyers, or at least were.

General Manager Daniel Briere talked about this being "rock bottom" in the team's rebuild.

"I really hope that this is the bottom," he said, per NHL.com. "This is rock bottom for us today, and this is the turnaround."

Furthermore, Briere said he felt it was time for a change, and it sounds like the relationship between Tortorella and the front office has deteriorated over the last few weeks.

"I felt it was time," Briere explained. "You're going to ask me, is there one thing that happened? It's not one thing. It's a series of things that have happened, and probably a little bit more in the last three weeks, that has escalated since probably around the Trade Deadline, right after that. So, like I said, it's not one thing specific. It's an accumulation [of things] that have happened, probably more often lately."

Shaw will be behind the bench for the rest of the season, but it's expected that the Flyers will look for a new coach over the summer.