John Tortorella makes his leading scorer a healthy scratch.

Philadelphia Flyers head coach John Tortorella may have just sent shockwaves through his locker room.

On Saturday, Tortorella revealed that he would be making veteran forward Kevin Hayes a healthy scratch for tonight's game against the New York Rangers at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

It was a stunning announcement if only due to the fact that Hayes is both the team's leading point producer with 29 points on the season thus far, and also due to the fact that he carries the second largest cap hit on the team ($7.14 million), second only to Flyers forward Sean Couturier ($7.75 million) who is currently sidelined due to injury.

Some have speculated that the decision comes off the back of Hayes' poor play on Thursday night against the New Jersey Devils, one that saw Hayes riding the bench for a considerable length of time during that game. This one play in particular has been highlighted by many as a potential catalyst for Tortorella's displeasure with Hayes:

When asked what he planned to do about the team's offensive output, which has seen just 2.39 goals per game on average this season so far, without Hayes in the lineup tonight, Tortorella offered the following:

"It's kind of a big picture in my mind as far as team concept," said Tortorella. "Again, I don't want to get into a long conversation about it, but it's a legitimate question. I can't keep looking by things because we're worried about scoring. 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. So that far outweighs losing some offense in a particular game."

The Flyers head coach has always been known for his incredibly demanding and rigid style of coaching and it seems clear that Hayes has failed to live up to his coach's high standards. That Tortorella would make this move on the same day that one of his forwards just up and left the team truly speaks to how displeased he is with Hayes.

The question now is how long will Hayes remain in the dog house moving forward?