Daniel Briere: Social Media Incident ‘Completely Embarrassing’ To Flyers Organization

Philadelphia Flyers general manager Daniel Briere said what happened on a Zoom call between the media and members of the team’s social media staff was a complete embarrassment to the organization.

Briere went on 94-WIP Wednesday morning to discuss the hot mic moment after Inquirer reporter Giana Han asked a question to new Flyers winger Garnet Hathaway.

WIP played the hot mic moment on the air Wednesday morning. There was an unconfirmed audio on Twitter Tuesday night of the moment.

“Hi, Garnet. I was just wondering as a veteran with a relative successful NHL career, what makes the Flyers who are in a rebuild state a destination that was [inaudible because of talkover]?” Han asked.

“How many times is she going to ask this bleeping question?” asked someone on a hot mic who was identified as a member of the team’s social media staff.

As Hathaway answers, you hear in the background “the Flyers suck” on the hot mic.

“The Flyers’ organization were completely embarrassed by that,” Briere said. “It’s completely unacceptable what was said there. It’s not our views.

“It’s not what we think of the reporter, especially Giana, who has worked extremely hard to get to where she is. I have reached out to Giana myself to express my regret with what happened and I hope she’s doing better today.

“But the thing is we want to continue to create an environment where there’s respect between our staff and the media.”

On Tuesday night, Flyers president Keith Jones apologized in a statement for the “disrespectful remarks” from members of the team’s social media staff.

Culture Change

Briere was asked by WIP Morning Show co-host Jon Ritchie what is the hardest part of changing an organization’s mindset and culture.

“It started with John Tortorella last summer with the mindset of the team,” Briere said. “It has to trickle through every tentacle of the organization.

“It takes time. It’s not done overnight. But we’re working on it and I think we’re trending in the right direction. Yesterday was a tough mistake that we’re all going to learn from.”

Co-host Joe DeCamara asked Briere if this incident will change how “extremely ornery” coach John Tortorella is with the media.

“First of all, I don’t think Torts has been disrespectful and swearing at some of the reporters,” Briere said.

“Torts is demanding of himself, he’s demanding of his players and he’s demanding of the reporters as well. But he always does it in a certain way where that respect is still there.

“I know he can be direct and to the point and sometimes it offends people but as far as we know, like so far, he’s walking that line.

“He’s competitive. After games, he doesn’t want to deal sometimes with some of the questions that are coming his way. But we’re constantly talking and trying to make him realize, too, that they’re also doing their job like he is.”