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Carchidi: Benching of Flyers’ Kevin Hayes Makes Little Sense

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Kevin Hayes, Philadelphia Flyers

Maybe Philadelphia Flyers coach John Tortorella is in the Bomb for Bedard brigade.



Maybe that explains why he benched Kevin Hayes, his leading scorer, for Saturday’s home game against the sizzling New York Rangers.

With Hayes, the Flyers are still a bad team. Injuries have crippled them, and they just don’t have enough scorers to match most opponents.

Without him, they are worse. Much worse.

On Thursday, Tortorella sent Hayes a message by benching him in the final period of a 1-1 game in New Jersey.

Poor play

Torts wasn’t happy with Hayes’ play. Heck, Hayes probably wasn’t happy with his play, either, especially a turnover late in the second period that led to an odd-man rush for the New Jersey Devils.

So Hayes, 30, had a couple days to think about his poor performance.  He probably thought he’d get a chance to redeem himself Saturday night against the New York Rangers.

Only he wasn’t on the ice in that game. He was a healthy scratch as Tortorella tried to magnify his message.

From here, it was an unnecessary move.

Hayes is a veteran. He was benched earlier this season in the third period and, since then, has arguably been the Flyers’ best offensive player.

Yes, there have been some defensive lapses here and there. Like many other forwards on this team. Emphasis on many.

But when you have a team as offensively inept as the Philadelphia Flyers, you need Hayes in the lineup.

OK, if you think you had to send Message No. 2 on Thursday against New Jersey, fine.

But to send another message to a nine-year pro, hoping will change some of his defensive habits?

That’s just totally misguided. Overkill.

Fans were divided on the benching. In the first eight hours of a poll I ran on Twitter, 51% disagreed with the decision, and 49% were in favor of it.

Flyers Ginger Ambassador said it was the right move “just because everyone in the present and future knows when you play for him, you have to do what he’s asking.”

He predicted Hayes would respond with a goal and an assist in Tuesday’s home game vs. Columbus.

Joseph Nassib gave a different view, noting the Rangers’ Artemi Panarin gave up the puck on Saturday against the Flyers. “Does he get benched? Enough already. I like Torts, but he seems to be on a power trip,” he said.

Competitive loss

The Flyers, minus Hayes, battled hard Saturday but dropped a closer-than-it-looks 6-3 decision to the Rangers.

Maybe Torts is trying to send a message to the other players, telling them: You play my way, with my structure, or you will sit.

But he already sent that message to Hayes. Twice.

Maybe he’s trying to get Hayes to ask for a trade because he doesn’t think he’s his kind of player?

If so, benching him a third time is not the way to increase his value.

You get the feeling the Flyers are going to put several veterans on the trade block, and the sizzling James van Riemsdyk and Hayes could help them get quality draft picks in a deep 2023 draft. (Hayes, who has a $7.1 million annual cap hit through 2025-26, has a modified no-trade clause. Reportedly, there are 12 teams he cannot be traded to.)

If Tortorella doesn’t want Hayes on the team, he should tell GM Chuck Fletcher, keep him in the lineup, let him bulk up his stats (29 points in 31 games), and then send him packing.

But Torts is going about it the wrong way.

And he won’t even explain to the media why he benched Hayes, other than to say: “I’ve got to look at the big picture of what this team is going to be, what the standard is, of how we have to play. That far outweighs losing some offense in a particular game.”

Hayes declined commenting on his latest benching. He took the high road after an October benching, saying he he respected “everything thing that Torts brings to this room. I respect all of his ideas and all of his coaching stuff.”

Back then, he added a kicker: “I don’t think I’ll ever agree with a coach who benches me.”

Especially a third time.

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Boe

I agree to disagree. I can see your point of view. But this not just sends a message to Hayes but rest of the team as well. You play the right way period an that has been the issues with this team past at least 7 years.Players had no passion back then good coaches lost theor jobs for that. They know that Torts demands an all in effort every shift. Mistakes will be made but at least they play the right way n learn. These players have ton of lazy bad habits and Torts is drilling them with the right way to play. Hayes was rightfully benched for his lazy play and turnovers also he is terrible on face offs. 6’5″ looks like a kid told to eat his veggies when he takes a face off. Also males other players know that they have to play or be benched as well. No matter his offensive production his defensive production trumps it.

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Bill

We don’t know what was said in the locker room.
Therefore we don’t have enough information to judge why Torts benched Hayes.

Jay95

But, it doesn’t matter what was said in the locker room. Tortz has don’t this to the best players on teams his entire career as a head coach. It’s why he has a shelf life. Hayes is literally the last player you want to bench.

RoadRules

Tortorella IS a. Very Good NHL Coach; and ill have to agree with the moves Torts makes. Somewhere in the past decade; the Flyers stopped outworking Teams on an night in; night out basis. There IS a reason WHY they’re one of the Worst Teams in the NHL. Tortorella recognizes that.

Sav1970

You can’t have a guy who is part of your veteran leadership group making the same mistakes time and again. It seems that Tortorella patience with Hayes has worn thin and although unfortunate, I see this from Tortorella’s point of view. He switched him to the wing to relieve some of the pressure off of him defensively. He has both publicly and most definitely privately conveyed the message to him to correct the lapses that he has had in games. Flyers fans have screamed for more accountability in that room for a good while now. Now we have a coach doing that, it is not always going to be pretty.

Brauny

Benching a player because they make a mistake is like cutting off your nose to spite your face. All players make mistakes. If you keep benching players who make mistakes, you will have a team full of players afraid to try anything because they are afraid if they make a mistake they will be benched. This will lead to lackluster play by players who can occasionally make great plays. That’s no way to play and its sending the wrong message to the team. Its ok to bench Hayes for the 3rd period if you want to send a message but not for the next game. The Flyers must want to move Hayes and JVR. Wont that be a fun team to watch without them. The Flyers are barely watchable as is. I am already seeing that Torts is the wrong guy to coach this team. What younger players is he developing?

Jay95

Agreed. Torts has a shelf life for a reason. And, for all of the complaints about Hayes, he is NOT the problem. He’s a “minus” on a bad team, but his underlying possession numbers show that he’s actually pushing play. And, I’m not talking raw possession stats, I’m talking relative possession stats. Relative to his teammates both his Corsi and Fenwick are around +11% That’s HUGE!.

The guy is having the best offensive season of his career, and yes it’s coming at the cost of some defense. But, as a Pittsburgher and life long Pens fan, I’ve heard so many people complain about Malkin over the years and his costly mistakes. But, in the end, the guy wins games for you.

Hayes wins games for the Flyers. JVR wins games for the flyers. Torts has a habit of taking away the creativity of his players to get a better team. However, 3 years later, he’s gone and the team lost starts while he was there.

Michael

This article is laughable. Hayes is so lazy. Hope he’s gone soon. I don’t care how many points he has. His mistakes have been very costly. He has done nothing to fix it.

Not Offsides

Tortorella has benched Hayes, Risto, and De Angelo this year (a game before his personal issue). All Fletcher signings. I wonder if he is also sending a message there.

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