Disconnect between Flyers Kevin Hayes and John Tortorella apparent in scratch decision

On Saturday, Philadelphia Flyers head coach John Tortorella made the surprising decision to scratch Kevin Hayes, the team’s leading scorer.

Hayes declined to comment on Saturday. So after a day off Sunday, Hayes hit the ice for practice with full knowledge that he would be asked afterward for his thoughts on the benching, and whether a veteran like him can take any benefit away from a scratch in terms of growing and learning.

“I’m never gonna say there’s a benefit to being benched. I’m sorry,” Hayes responded.

Hayes wasn’t done.

“I don’t think I should have been benched, but it’s not my decision,” Hayes continued. “He’s the coach. I’m a player. He makes the lineup, he wants the best team on the ice to ultimately win, and that’s what he went with that night.”

One should applaud Hayes for his honesty with the media, and by extension, the fans. But that’s not exactly the answer one would expect from a player on the same page with — or especially thrilled with — his coach at the moment. Nor does it sound like a player who concurs with his coach’s reasoning for the scratch.

So is there a disconnect between the two of them? It sure sounds like it, though Tortorella disagreed when told of Hayes’ on-the-record comments just minutes later.

“There’s no disconnect, as far as I’m concerned,” Tortorella said. “Kevin and I have had many conversations, conversations prior to this.”

In Tortorella’s mind, he’s communicated to Hayes exactly why he’s dissatisfied with his recent play, and he believes he’s been truthful in that regard.

“I don’t want to get into a public debate with Kevin, (through) you guys (in the media) as far as why,” he continued. “It’s one of the things I pride myself on, is being honest with a player. I think they deserve the honesty, whether it be good or bad. That is my job, is to be honest with them. So however Kevin feels about it, I don’t understand his thinking there. But again, I don’t know how he answered your question, or how the question was (phrased). I will never lie to a player about anything.”

That said, it’s clear there is a disconnect between the two, at least in terms of what Tortorella wants out of Hayes, and what Hayes believes he is doing his best to provide. Tortorella, in short, thinks that Hayes isn’t even meeting him halfway on his demands to be a more conscientious defensive player, even at the less demanding position of wing. Hayes, at least today, sounded very much like a player who believes he’s being scapegoated for a few bad plays, and that his defensive play hasn’t been nearly as shoddy as Tortorella has made it out to be.

“I’m gonna guess ‘be better defensively,'” Hayes answered when asked what he believes Tortorella wants to see from him and his game.

But Hayes doesn’t appear to believe that’s quite fair.

“Yeah, I mean, you can be benched, and everyone writes about ‘be better defensively,'” he continued later in the availability. “I try every night to be the best player I can be. Some nights it goes well for me, and some nights it doesn’t. I try to be consistent. He felt like I was doing worse for the team than better, so he decided not to play me.”

Take the scratching itself. Many speculated in the immediate aftermath of Saturday’s news that it was driven by Hayes’ egregious turnover at the end of the second period on Thursday, given the fact that Hayes did not see another shift the rest of the game. And to be sure, it was an ugly turnover. Take a look.

But Tortorella contended on Monday that turnover wasn’t the only reason why he chose to scratch Hayes.

“When it comes to a scratch, it isn’t … I’m sure you guys think it’s because of a turnover, the turnover in the middle of the ice (against New Jersey),” he said. “I’m never scratching a player for one mistake. And this is where Kevin and I have had those conversations, much prior to him missing a game. So I’ll leave it at that. Let’s leave it at that. That’s fair.”

It’s not merely “you guys” in the media who suspected that the turnover drove the scratching, though. Hayes himself strongly implied he did too.

“I mean, I try my hardest every night to do the right things here. Sometimes things don’t go your way,” Hayes said. “I think the icing on the cake was the turnover in Jersey, but I don’t think … I think everyone on this team knows I wasn’t trying to turn the puck over. Come on. I mean, it’s a two-on-one the other way. If you’re doing that, if you’re wanting to do that, you’re insane.

“So yeah, I guess I should have got the puck deep and who knows? Maybe I would have been in the lineup the next game. Maybe, I don’t know.”

In Tortorella’s eyes, however, that’s missing the point.

“As I said (before) — and I’m not trying to be coy — stuff happens, I have to make decisions on people,” he noted. “And these are standards (that are) held for everybody in this organization, no matter what draft pick, no matter what stature, no matter what you have, no matter what you’re thought about here, I have to hold the standard for everybody. And that’s how it’s going to be. I think that’s the proper way to build this hockey club. We’re going to stick by it.”

And he has the support of general manager Chuck Fletcher, who confirmed he was consulted on the scratching before it happened.

“Kevin has been a really good player for us this year, leading our team in scoring. I think there’s other areas of his game that John wants to see a little bit more out of,” Fletcher said. “The great thing about John — there’s no doghouse with John Tortorella. I mean, he makes his points, whether ice time or you sit for a bit or you miss a game, but you’re always gonna get that chance to get back in there.”

And Hayes will get back in the lineup on Tuesday, Tortorella confirmed, when the Flyers face Columbus to kick off a three-games-in-four-nights run leading into the holiday break.

“Kevin’s a really important part of our team,” Fletcher continued. “He’s a great person and a really important part of our team. I’m sure he’ll respond the right way.”

However, if the player and coach remain not on the same page, it’s getting tougher to see how “responding the right way” even becomes a possibility. And if that remains the case … well, there’s a reason why Tortorella has stated repeatedly that he’s using this season as a way to determine who is part of the solution in Philadelphia and who isn’t, and there’s a reason why Sportsnet reporter Elliotte Friedman speculated on his ’32 Thoughts’ podcast of the possibility of a Hayes buyout in the offseason.

This story isn’t going away anytime soon, even with Hayes slated to return to the Flyers’ lineup. Both Hayes and Tortorella’s comments on Monday made sure of that.

The Hayes story wasn’t the only big one surrounding the Flyers on Monday. Clarity was finally provided regarding Cam Atkinson’s status.

And it wasn’t the good kind of clarity.

In the morning, Anthony SanFilippo of Crossing Broad reported that Atkinson would soon have season-ending surgery for a “non-orthopedic” medical procedure and that the issue has the potential to be career-threatening. A few hours later, the Flyers at long last revealed the details of Atkinson’s issue.

Yes, Atkinson’s season is over. But it’s due to a neck injury, one that Atkinson could never quite get over.

“He tried hard for a few months to rehab,” Fletcher explained. “He worked with our people, he worked with a couple of people he’s worked with before in Columbus that had helped him in the past. It just became clear … even as (recently as) last week, we thought he might even be able to play against the Rangers. He just couldn’t get over the hump. Then it became less of a focus about this year, and more of a focus on let’s get him right, let’s get him healthy for himself, but (also) so he can come back and play.”

While there are some similarities to Joel Farabee’s offseason neck injury and subsequent surgery, the two situations aren’t identical. For starters, Atkinson really didn’t have a specific incident that caused the issue. Fletcher described it as more of a “wear-and-tear” injury, and the uncertainty surrounding that kind of problem played into the organization’s secrecy and inconsistency regarding his pending status. Don’t forget, Tortorella said just a few days before Game 1 of the regular season that he was confident Atkinson would play in the season opener, and Atkinson himself told reporters just three weeks ago that he felt he was close to a return.

“At times, he’d feel a lot better and be able to go out and shoot. You guys saw him out on the ice, and it looks like he’s getting closer,” Fletcher said. “But he just couldn’t get all the strength back that he needed to have to play. He just couldn’t get over that final hurdle. So it wasn’t like there was secrecy, as much as we were dealing with the information we had, and just hoping. He would get better day after day after day, three good days and then a bad day.”

Atkinson clearly wanted to avoid having surgery if at all possible. But he was finally convinced to go that route after a recent appointment with his doctor.

“When he spoke with this last doctor, I think the doctor kind of laid it out that, you might be able to come back and play if you continue to rehab,” Fletcher noted. “But you got to look at the bigger picture here, in terms of nerve irritation in your arm. If you want to get back to 100 percent for the long term, you need to do this. I think that really resonated with him. And again, this is after weeks and weeks of trying to come back. He made the right decision for him.”

Fletcher expressed confidence that Atkinson — who has two seasons remaining on his contract at a $5.875 million cap hit — will be ready for next season, and that this isn’t a career-ending issue. Tortorella, who has been in regular communication with Atkinson throughout the process, relayed similar sentiments from Atkinson himself. But given the slower-than-expected post-surgical recoveries of Hayes and Sean Couturier in recent years, it’s fair for fans to take an “I’ll believe it when I see it” approach to Atkinson’s 2023-24 post-surgery status.

Regardless, the Flyers — a team that ranks second-to-last in the NHL in goals per game — will now be missing probably its best natural goal scorer for the remainder of the season. Not exactly a positive development, even if Atkinson can indeed successfully return next season.

Additional tidbits

• Fletcher denied rumors that have flown over the past few weeks that Atkinson was dealing with a heart condition, either instead of or in addition to the neck injury. “No. Not at all,” he said. “Yeah, Elliotte Friedman just texted me (about that). And I said, no, thank goodness. Not that a neck is anything to laugh about, but you can go in and fix it. Which we’ll do and the doctor will do. But no, there’s no heart issue or anything like that.”

• Wade Allison will return to the Flyers lineup on Tuesday, about one-to-two weeks later than the original two-to-three week timetable provided by the organization on November 22. Why the delay? “I messed a lot of s— up,” Allison cracked.

• Bobby Brink is slated to see his doctor on December 22, and could be fully cleared in the wake of his hip surgery if all goes well. Brink has been skating with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms for weeks now, and he’d almost certainly begin his 2022-23 season in the AHL. But he’s nearing a return, even if he’ll have to work on getting fully into game shape before actually appearing in a competitive contest.

• Fletcher believes that Couturier’s recovery from his second back surgery is going well, and he could potentially be cleared for skating in a few weeks. Couturier is still looking at a late-February/early-March return-to-play date at the earliest, however.

(Photo of John Tortorella and Kevin Hayes: Bill Streicher / USA Today)

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