The jokes were made as soon as the Flyers hired Tortorella in the offseason. Torts & Gritty, Tortorella was walking into a veteran dressing room. There has not been a drought of sound bytes coming from the Flyers this season. Yet the team has been more successful than expected.
Starting the season with his comments on lacking leadership and attitude of the team, comments on a young prospect being up and down “like a toilet bowl,” and now he has scratched Kevin Hayes, the teams leading scorer. A move that came as a shock to the NHL world, there were plenty of Kevin Hayes allies in the media questioning the move.
While this move is odd for Tortorella, there doesn’t seem to be a clear message. Is this a shot at Hayes, or is this a message to management? When asked about the Healthy Scratch, Tortorella said
“It’s kind of a big picture in my mind as far as team concept. Again, I don’t want to get into a long conversation about it, but it’s a legitimate question. I can’t keep looking by things because we’re worried about scoring. I’ve got to look at the big picture of what this team is going to be, what the standard is, of how we have to play. So that far outweighs losing some offense in a particular game.”
Things are still unfolding as the Flyers play this evening, but we are sure this is not the end.
