Brad Shaw is ‘having a blast’ as an interim head coach. The Flyers are having fun, too.

Brad Shaw was called into general manager Danny Brière’s office on Thursday morning in Voorhees.

He had already heard that the Flyers had fired head coach John Tortorella. Many expected it to happen at the end of the season, so it was a bit shocking to come with nine games left.

For Shaw, the Flyers’ associate coach on a Tortorella-led staff for eight of the last nine seasons, including three with the Flyers, the chat with Brière was bittersweet. He was getting another head coaching job, almost 20 years since his last interim tag with the New York Islanders, but it came with his mentor and friend getting the boot.

So it was not unexpected to see him get emotional when speaking to the media about Tortorella.

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“I couldn’t have more respect for him as a human being and as a hockey guy,” Shaw said. “Yeah, he’s always going to be a friend of mine, and I’m going to thank him for giving me the chance to work with him and learn and become better.”

But now Shaw has a chance to show what he can do as interim coach. And with him leading the way, the Flyers are undefeated — even though his game card, the one every hockey coach has, is geared more toward defense and the penalty kill, which were his responsibilities under Tortorella.

“Before the game, I asked the guys to take a breath,” he said Thursday after a 6-4 win against the Montreal Canadiens. “Let’s have fun working hard for one another.”

Fun is a word that has been used often by the Flyers since Thursday’s news. Read into it however you may, but right now there is a looseness around the team.

Shaw wouldn’t take the credit, but he did say the quiet part out loud Saturday after the Flyers defeated the Buffalo Sabres, 7-4.

“We haven’t really tried to make it any lighter. I just think my personality is lighter than Torts’, and I have a lighter hand in how I go about my business,” he said. “So I think, inherently, it might be lighter on the bench. I think that’s just natural that that would be the feeling. Obviously, winning is fun.”

Then he added the kicker: “I’m having fun on the bench, having a blast.”

And it’s oozing all over the ice. Before Shaw took over the role, the Flyers were mired in a massive end-of-season slump.

A 7-2 shellacking on Tuesday by Scott Laughton and the Toronto Maple Leafs — when Tortorella said postgame, “I’m not really interested in learning how to coach in this type of season” and got into a heated argument with defenseman Cam York — was the Flyers’ sixth straight loss. They were averaging 1.67 goals and an eye-popping 4.50 goals against; for the record, and shockingly, neither was the worst in the NHL during that stretch.

And the Flyers had just one win since a 6-3 loss to Morgan Frost, Joel Farabee, and the Calgary Flames on March 4. Across that 1-10-1 span, the Flyers did have the worst goals for (1.75) and goals against (4.33). Woof.

Yes, it’s only two games for the Flyers, but since Thursday, only two teams had scored 13 goals through Saturday, and the other is the Tampa Bay Lightning, which is heading to the Stanley Cup playoffs. To make it even more interesting, a power play that had not scored a goal in March is now 42.9% effective since the change.

“When you’re in a season like that, and then tough spots, you know, any change is welcome,” forward Noah Cates said Saturday afternoon. “Unfortunately, it’s a coach and a well-respected guy, but just kind of [a] reset after it.”

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Shaw is also a well-respected guy in the hockey world. The 60-year-old Canadian patrolled NHL blue lines for 11 seasons and was named to the league’s All-Rookie Team in 1990 alongside names like Mike Modano and Rod Brind’Amour. After some time coaching in the minors, sandwiched around a year with the Lightning, he has consistently been behind NHL benches since 2005, including a stint alongside former Flyers bench boss Ken Hitchcock in St. Louis.

But the former defenseman isn’t used to his current spot. He has spent decades at the end of the bench, not just playing but coaching defensemen. Now he is in charge of twice as many guys up front — in addition to the defense — and it’s a whole new beast for him.

“I remember saying to [assistant] Rocky [Thompson], there were five minutes left in the first period, it’s like, ‘Man, it’s crazy, how fast it goes at this end of the bench,‘” he joked on Friday.

With coaching forwards comes the added responsibility of figuring out matchups, line combinations, who is hot, who is not, and more. It has given him a new perspective — and a new perspective on rookie sensation Matvei Michkov, who just so happens to have four goals and five points in the last two games.

“When you start watching him, I mean, that play in front of the bench where he picks it off and goes down for the breakaway, that’s an exceptional little cat-and-mouse game that he plays with that guy, and he wins it,” Shaw said Thursday. “... He tends to get guys frustrated on the ice, because he has that ability to really do something, almost out of nothing.”

It has been so much fun watching Michkov lately that Shaw has thrown ice time at him. In the last two games, Michkov, who entering Sunday leads all rookies in goals (24) and is tied with Montreal defenseman Lane Hutson in the points race (56), has averaged 19 minutes, 14 seconds of ice time; across Tortorella’s tenure, it was 16:19.

Although Shaw will be the first to say Michkov needs to work on his defense, he’s getting him out there. With the 20-year-old netting a pair of goals in each game, Shaw has been putting him out there at the end to get that first NHL hat trick. And how different are the vibes? Shaw threw his hands up in disbelief — coupled with a big smile — when Michkov hit the post instead of the empty net against the Canadiens.

“It’s too bad, because I know a lot of people were dying to throw their hats on the ice, too,” Shaw said Thursday with a chuckle. “It was a great night already, would have made it even better, especially getting him a hat trick, but maybe he saved it for Saturday.” And Michkov almost did.

The bespectacled coach has brought his experience, calm demeanor, and levelheadedness to the bench. When asked if it’s his style to bench players like Tortorella did often, including York on Tuesday, Shaw said he didn’t “want to answer a question that can be used against Torts.”

Read into that as you want, but it shows who Shaw is. It’s a different mood around the Flyers.

Called a “super smart guy [who] thinks the game at a high level” by forward Owen Tippett and “a really detailed coach” by York, the interim head coach even apologized to goalie Sam Ersson after the game for leaving five forwards on the ice for a late power play when the Sabres scored a shorthanded goal; the Flyers also scored a power-play goal.

Of course, with any coach, a change is going to come, but for now, the vibes are pretty immaculate in Philly. Shaw has told himself to soak it all in because the future is uncertain, so he’s just loving the ride.

“That’s why it’s addictive, right? Like, that’s why it’s fun,” he said Friday when asked about all that comes with coaching forwards, and being the bench boss in general. “It’s an incredible challenge. I had fun with it and I’m going to enjoy these last eight games no matter what happens on the ice.

“I want to make sure that I take it in and enjoy it. I don’t know when the next chance is going to be. So, that’s my approach to it, and I hope that helps me be a little bit better coach and maybe a little bit more matter-of-fact and a little more helpful on the bench.”