Keith Yandle publicly calls out John Tortorella.

Yandle not happy with the coach's decisions.

Jonathan Larrivee
Jonathan Larrivee
Published 1 year ago
Keith Yandle publicly calls out John Tortorella.
Flyers/Morning Call

It seems as though Philadelphia Flyers head coach John Tortorella has rubbed some players the wrong way, and I'm not even talking about the players on his own team.

Over the weekend Tortorella made the controversial decision to make Flyers leading scorer Kevin Hayes a healthy scratch a decision that came off the heels of a big mistake from Hayes during last Thursday's game between the Flyers and the New Jersey Devils. That mistake earned Hayes a benching during the game itself, but it was clear Tortorella felt more of a message was in order.

 Since the decision to scratch Hayes, Tortorella has faced some backlash for making the move with perhaps no one coming at him harder than former Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Keith Yandle. Yandle took to his Instagram to publicly lambast Tortorella over the decision, as well as over his coaching acumen.

"Today I woke up this morning to a little bit of some disheartening news that Kevin Hayes won't be playing tonight for the Philadelphia Flyers and it's just one of those things I can't really wrap my head around," said Yandle.

According to Yandle the move simply doesn't make any sense.

"A guy that's leading the team in scoring, having played there I know what he means to that locker room, the leadership that he brings and the enthusiasm that he brings," said Yandle. 

After praising his former teammate, Yandle took some serious shots at Tortorella.

"It's hard for me to realize that a guy like that won't be playing in a game because maybe a coach wants to get his point across, it's hard for me to see what the points is right now," said a clearly frustrated Yandle. "Just watching a lot of their games this year it almost seems like they are being outcoached in a lot of those games."

Yandle went a step further though, suggesting that perhaps Tortorella should consider benching himself next time instead.

"There are games that they could have won and maybe a decision that the coaches make... it costs them a game," said Yandle. "You take about accountability and being there for the team, I think it's one of those things is it time maybe that a coach gets healthy scratched?"

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