Daily Faceoff Live: Why did John Tortorella healthy scratch the Flyers’ leading scorer?

Yaremchuk: “It’s been nothing but drama for the Philadelphia Flyers this season and that continued on Saturday when John Tortorella scratched Kevin Hayes, the team’s leading scorer, ahead of their game against the New York Rangers.

It’s a puzzling move. Hayes has 29 points in 31 games and this is a team that’s been losing because they’re bad defensively and they can’t score. They’re only averaging 2.41 goals per game, which is 30th in the league.

Can you make any sense of why Torts would scratch the team’s leading scorer when the team isn’t scoring goals?”

McKenna: “Torts is trying to send a message here but I don’t know if this is the fight that you want to pick. Whether Torts likes Hayes or not, it’s pretty apparent that he doesn’t how he plays.

This is the third time that Torts has benched Hayes. It isn’t just healthy scratching. He’s had Hayes miss extended periods of time during games as well.

Hayes’ contract, $50 million over seven years, is a deal that was signed by Chuck Fletcher, the general manager of the team, he targeted Hayes as a free agent and brought him in. Where does that battle lie? Why is Torts going after Hayes in this scenario?

You’re trying to set the tone, you have to do things my way to make it work. Healthy scratching a player is like a bag skate, it doesn’t work. I hate to say that, but it doesn’t work today. Torts is picking the wrong battle here, especially on a team that just doesn’t have the talent to compete.”

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