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Tortorella Benches Kevin Hayes, Travis Konecny in 3rd Period of Flyers’ Loss

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Kevin Hayes, Travis Konecny, Philadelphia Flyers
Kevin Hayes (left) and Travis Konecny were both benched Sunday by unhappy Flyers coach John Tortorella. Photo: Zack Hill.

The Philadelphia Flyers were already minus one of their best forwards, James van Riemsdyk, when head coach John Tortorella decided to bench his leading scorers, Kevin Hayes and Travis Konecny, for the entire third period Sunday night.

Tortorella didn’t want to discuss it after the Flyers’ 3-0 loss to visiting San Jose, but clearly he was sending a message to the rest of the team: Play the right way or you won’t get minutes.

The Flyers trailed 2-0 at the time, and their other players responded to the benching. The Flyers, who were listless for the first 40 minutes, outshot San Jose, 17-6, in the third period but couldn’t solve goalie James Reimer.

The Sharks (2-6) closed the scoring with an empty-net goal.

What was Tortorella’s message to Hayes and Konecny?

“I’m just going to keep that in the room,” he said.

Tortorella, whose team lost van Riemsdyk to a first-period injury, added that the Flyers’ “whole performance sucked,” but he liked how they “played hard” with different line combinations in the third period.

Konecny, who leads the Flyers with four goals, had one shot, three giveaways, and was minus-2 in 12:26.

“I wasn’t playing good enough,” he said. “I was on for both (San Jose) goals. I’m sure that had something to do with it.”

Konecny said Tortorella has been “on us about that since the beginning of camp. It doesn’t matter who you are. You have to play the right way. … I had some mistakes tonight and it was his decision.”

Hayes, the Philadelphia Flyers’ leader with seven points, was minus-1 and had one shot and one giveaway in 11:02. He won seven of 13 faceoffs.

Hayes, who had collected at least a point in each of the first five games, said he hadn’t talked to his coach yet.

“I don’t think he was too happy with my game, if I can guess,” he said.

Both players will have a chance to redeem themselves Thursday against visiting Florida.

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Larry Hoard

Kevin Hayes and Travis Konecny did not see the ice in the third period of the Flyers’ 3-0 loss.

“Our whole performance, it sucked,” John Tortorella said.

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Darren

This won’t end well for the Flyers. Tort’s act is the same with every team his coaches. He thinks benching his best players is going to help them play better. It never does.

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Darren

I’m confused by how many teams think that Tortorella’s style of coaching still works well in today’s NHL. Benching your best players doesn’t make them want to play for him more. It makes them want to leave the organization. He’s buried several players in his coaching career and it always ends poorly for Torts. The organization then has to trade the players for draft picks (at less than market value because they are the ones trying to force a trade) and start rebuilding all over. How many times can he do this to teams and still have any credibility around the league? Apparently the Flyers think it will work for them. Well, they now have 2 of their best players unimpressed with Torts’ style of coaching. How long until they ask out of the organization?

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Not Offsides

You could question benching two top scorers with the team down only 2-0 plus with JVR out. Fair enough. I didn’t see the game so I don’t know how much this was deserved. However, we all agreed that the players need more accountability. Here we have a game where they are down 2-0 to a 1-6 team at home. 2nd of back to back, yes, but this taking the night off stuff is what we`ve seen too much of in this country-clubhouse. And those two are prime culprits. So, let them know early on that will not fly (pun intended) anymore. I hope it did piss them off. And I hope everyone else got the message, too.

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Lawrence Freedman

The coach is dead wrong players should just ask to be traded.4 games into the season! and already a controversy management made a serious error bringlng torts in.The franchise is already set back years before they can compete and torts will add the length of his contract to increase chances of moving forward.Very bad move by management,hope im wrong

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