Philadelphia Flyers
Cam York Benched for Disciplinary Reasons
With just under 10 minutes left in the Flyers’ game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, defenseman Cam York found a permanent seat on the bench. He would not see the ice for the rest of the game.
Flash forward to the Flyers’ next game, this time at home against the Montreal Canadiens. Philadelphia had exactly 18 healthy skaters–12 forwards and six defensemen, York included.
On the line sheet, he was listed on the third pair as Emil Andrae’s right-side partner. However, the defenseman would never see the ice.
Cam York was benched for the second straight game. He has not been listed with any injury designation since early in the season. So that leaves us with one question:
Why Bench Cam York, Again?
Interim head coach Brad Shaw answered the burning question.
While it does not particularly answer why York did not see the roughly final 50 minutes of the game in Toronto, he did not play on Thursday for disciplinary reasons.
Consequently, the Flyers played Thursday’s game with five defensemen. Travis Sanheim totaled just over 30 minutes on ice. Nick Seeler and Jamie Drysdale were the only other two Flyers’ defensemen to play more than 20 minutes. Egor Zamula tallied 18:20, and Emil Andrae did not play more than 13 minutes.
Honestly, it is shocking that the Flyers’ defenseman, Sanheim and Seeler, particularly, played as well as they did given the abnormally high usage.
Shaw was willing to answer the question of why York was benched. However, as expected, he would not go into any further detail other than the fact that it was disciplinary. The interim coach did confirm that the plan is for York to draw back into the lineup Saturday against Buffalo.
While we will likely never know the cause, we now have the answer as to why Cam York was “scratched”.
Read More: Flyers Rally Through Change, Beat Habs 6-4 in Shaw’s Interim Debut
Day After Update
The morning after York’s benching, two reports came out regarding the situation. The first:
Kurz’s report confirmed that something had happened between York and John Tortorella, leading to the timing of the coach’s dismissal.
Frank Seravalli would go on to confirm and clarify Kurz’s report.
The clarity on the York situation continues to come in.
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We have the answer???
As good of one as we’ll get, for now anyway.
If they knew he wasn’t going to play, why have him dress and watch from the bench? Why not officially scratch him and watch from the box? Doesn’t make sense.
You are required to dress 18 skaters and the Flyers were all out of call ups (only emergency call ups now due to injuries are allowed) So they had no choice but to dress him and “scratch” him that way.
Agreed…….totally uncalled for.
Standing him out, is my reasoning. Maybe, as a defense coach, it was Shaw, who he “rapped off to”… Torts took exception to that. Obviously, he was let go, maybe Shaw did it in respect to Torts?… we’ll probably never know
Correction: It was within the first 10 mins of the Toronto game that York was scratched due to a lazy effort off of a faceoff the Flyers won in their own zone that led to Torontos’ first goal. York was then benched for the rest of the game. I don’t mean to be overly critical of the writing on this site, but I can’t ignore the inaccuracies which have been many lately. You are lucky enough to cover the Flyers and write about them. At least try to be accurate with things you’re writing. You’re predecessor Ben often made similar mistakes and well… now you’re hear. Do better.
Yes, that is correct. I wrote that in story about the Toronto game—which I linked in this story as well, but it was not very clear, so that’s on me.
I meant that Shaw did not expand on whether or not he was benched solely due to his play, or if whatever incident he is being disciplined for occurred during the game or after.
I should be more clear next time, I appreciate the feedback!
You’re welcome. I do mean my criticism to be constructive and not insulting so thank you for taking it that way. I come to this site because I enjoy the coverage and I’m happy to “help” in anyway I can.
Humiliating experience for Yorkie……assume now he will be traded come July….he does not want to stay in this org now I would think……Anaheim and SoCal here he comes…back home for him.
Good. If you don’t want to be a Flyer, we don’t WANT YOU !! as per Keith Jones…. quit being a PUSSY York !!!!..
Many, many players – mostly AMERICAN, get to the NHL… “I don’t want to play for this team, that team… “… it’s not a right to play in the NHL… it’s a PRIVILEGE.
“I just went to College, I’m a bonafide star… have always been given things on a plate”.. well Cutter, Rutger, etc etc…. play the game the way it was meant to be played.
Flyers need to think twice before picking from USNDP.
The Flyers passed over drafting Cole Caufield to trade down and take York, and now here is another first-round pick that they screwed up.
I’m hearing a lot of speculation that there was a fight between York and Torts. Not an actual physical fistfight but they went at it. Torts has been riding York for two years and York finally stood up for himself. Kevin Hayes was his original whipping boy, then Morgan Frost, and without them to take away some of the heat York was squarely in the crosshairs of Tortorella’s shit. Sounds like he got tired of putting up with it and stood up for himself. The only question is if York went too far. We’ll find out in the offseason when he’s traded.
I was already hoping we’d take Matthew Schaefer with our first pick, and now he seems even more critical.