John Tortorella could even pretend to be happy for his own player, Iltalehti editor Sami Ikonen hopes.
John Tortorella orders his first season with the Flyers. PDO
Philadelphia Flyers forward Kevin Hayes experienced a pleasant surprise during Epiphany week. The player, who is one of the few successful players of the team belonging to the lower division of the Eastern Conference, learned that he has been selected for the star event organized in Florida among other top players.
The striker, who forged the season with almost a point per game, fulfilled the dream of his deceased brother at the same time. Jimmy Hayes, who died in the summer of 2021 at the age of 31, was his brother’s biggest supporter and hoped to see him wearing a star uniform.
– This feels cool, because this is what he always talked about since I started hockey. He told me every year this is your year, Kevin Hayes recalled his older brother on the Flyers social media.
The star player promised to take his nephew, who lost his father, to the star event and to keep him close to him constantly.
The story is beautiful even when viewed outside of sports. However, one man is not interested in this and once again got the attention directed at himself with a couple of poorly timed sentences.
Kevin Hayes didn’t fit into the lineup as the team’s second most effective player. PDO
Coaching his first season in Philadelphia, John Tortorella knows how to share opinions with his sometimes very blunt comments. The coach was asked for his opinion at the press conference when Travis Konecny, who leads the team’s point exchange, was not chosen instead of Hayes.
– I don’t care about that shit. The whole thing, the game, the weekend… I don’t even watch it. I don’t care, said the coach.
Although the NHL’s all-star game has lost its luster over the years, the same can be said about the 64-year-old Tortorella. A coach who has been in the business since the 1980s could have mentioned a couple of nice words on behalf of Hayes and not made the All Stars event just a way to say something snarky again.
John Tortore has a personality that stands out from the crowd. When asked why the game is not going well, he can answer that the whole team is playing badly. He demands that the team play a strictly planned game plan, from which a slip-up, regardless of status, can lead to a bench command.
This is what happened in the Flyers to scorer Hayes, Carolina’s most effective defender last season Tony DeAngelo, and Rasmus Ristolainen, who enjoys an annual salary of more than five million. It’s a harsh way to get players to perform better, but does Tortorella have to use it as a standard solution?
Everyone also remembers Patrik Laine’s benching commotion when Tortorella still ruled the Columbus Blue Jackets. The young man yo-yoed between the stands and the lineup for a while, and the attacking player did not get any playing time in the decisive stages of the game.
No healthy scratch decision is going to get the Flyers into the playoffs. Something else could be tried.
– Maybe it would be time to throw the coach in the stands, Keith Yandle, who was with the Flyers before Tortorella, thought on Instagram after Hayes ended up outside the lineup.
Or if Tortorella would allow airwaves in the team even for a moment, maybe the atmosphere would improve.
Rasmus Ristolainen has become the target of the coach king. PDO