Yandle slams Tortorella for scratching Hayes; says team has been outcoached
Philadelphia Flyers head coach John Tortorella raised some eyebrows this week when announcing his team's leading scorer would be a healthy scratch. The veteran bench boss made it clear he didn't care that Hayes had the most goals on the Flyers, and could no longer overlook his defensive liabilities. Now, one of Hayes' former teammates is coming to his defence, and indicating the problem is not Hayes but Tortorella.
In a video released on Instagram by Keith Yandle, who spent the final year of his NHL career in Philadelphia, Hayes is a leader in the locker room and firmly believes scratching him accomplishes nothing.
"It's hard for me to realize that a guy like that won't be playing in a game because, maybe, the coach wants to get his point across, which is hard for me to see what the point is right now," said Yandle.
"Just even watching some of their games this year, it almost seems like they're being outcoached in a lot of those games," Yandle added about the Flyers. "That there are games that they could have won and, you know, maybe a decision that the coach has to make costs them a game."
"You talk about accountability and being there for the team, I think it's one of those things, is it the time maybe that a coach gets healthy scratched? Where the responsibility is brought upon himself?"
You can see the full video below. Hayes has 9 goals and 29 points in 31 games this season. He currently sits at a minus-12.
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Kyle Connor | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Alex Tuch | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Owen Power | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Michael Bunting | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Drew Helleson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jirí Kulich | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Isac Lundestrom | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Vladislav Namestnikov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nino Niederreiter | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Gabriel Vilardi | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jason Zucker | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Leo Carlsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nikolaj Ehlers | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ross Johnston | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Evgeni Malkin | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Morrissey | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Cole Perfetti | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Bryan Rust | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mark Scheifele | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Trevor Zegras | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 20 | 17 | 3 | - | 34 | |
Wild | 19 | 13 | 3 | 3 | 29 | |
Hurricanes | 19 | 14 | 5 | - | 28 | |
Devils | 22 | 13 | 7 | 2 | 28 | |
Capitals | 19 | 13 | 5 | 1 | 27 | |
Golden Knights | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Maple Leafs | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Rangers | 18 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 25 | |
Panthers | 20 | 12 | 7 | 1 | 25 | |
Flames | 20 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 25 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||