Last week, Philadelphia Flyers head coach John Tortorella decided that he would move up to the press box in the hopes of gleaning a different look at his club with a bird’s eye view.
In his self-imposed absence, Flyers assistant coach Rocky Thompson, as well as associate coach Brad Shaw, have taken the reins, working the bench and acting as the pseudo-head coach.
That also involved taking questions from the media post-game, as was the case following Philadelphia’s 4-2 drubbing at the hands of the lowly St. Louis Blues on Tuesday. Thompson, who steered the ship as the Flyers dropped their fourth straight, was quite blunt in his assessment of the roster’s current state and compete level.
“Quite frankly, it looks like some guys in here don’t even care,” Thompson told reporters. “They’re just not trying.”
The Blues’ 285 goals against this season is tied for fifth-worst in the league, yet the Flyers’ meagre offence, mustering just two goals against Jordan Binnington and his .892 save percentage, looked milquetoast against one of hockey’s weakest defensive outfits.
“I’m not going to call out anybody individually, but your teammates know, and you know,” Thompson added ominously. “I’ll give everybody another chance, and if you’re going to (try), then I’ll keep playing you.”
Thompson wouldn’t divulge who exactly he was speaking of, though a quick perusal of Tuesday’s box score provides some decent suspects.
Namely, the Flyers highest paid forward Kevin Hayes, who finished with just one shot and no hits in 13:59 of ice time against the Blues, has gone ice-cold.
Hayes has scored just twice since his trip to Sunrise for the NHL All-Star game as Philadelphia’s lone representative. He’s also a team-worst -19 amongst forwards and has since been relegated to the team’s third line in favour of the club’s youth as the Flyers embark on a true rebuild.
It’s also not as if Hayes’ squabbles with the Flyers coaching staff are anything particularly new. Earlier this season, despite leading the Flyers in scoring, Tortorella scratched Hayes resulting in a fairly public squabble between the two sides.
“Yeah, I mean, my role has tremendously changed,” Hayes told The Athletic earlier this week. “They’re building for the future. You can see who’s part of it and who isn’t.”
“My role has been diminishing for months here,” he added. “I’ve accepted it.”
