PHILADELPHIA, PA - DECEMBER 23: Kevin Hayes #13 of the Philadelphia Flyers reacts after scoring a goal against the New York Rangers in the third period at the Wells Fargo Center on December 23, 2019 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Flyers defeated the Rangers 5-1. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
Photo Credit: Mitchell Leff/Getty Images
The Flyers were getting pummeled, an onslaught was taking place with the Carolina Hurricanes up 6-2 with 17:52 to go in the second period in December. Hart goes down and the passionate fans of Philadelphia were left gasping for air.
Rasmus Ristolainen pushed a Cane into Hart and Hart flew back into the net. He was then pulled for Samuel Ersson, to which Ersson made 25 saves on 30 shots faced in his NHL Debut. Hart was later out with an upper body injury, and that is all that was told to us from the Flyers.
However, the buck did not stop there. Kevin Hayes at that point in the season just looked disinterested and disengaged. I’ve personally never seen Hayes look that disinterested with players skating by him, with lackluster defensive effort to protect the two defensemen. The Canes were just skating by Hayes with no problem, and there was no fight back from Hayes.
Hayes, on top of being a sizeable Center was also brought in as a defensive specialist by former Flyers General Manager Chuck Fletcher. He was not known to be a goal scorer, rather his excellent penalty killing skills aided the Flyers in 2019-20. Yes he was producing at this point in the season, but the attention to detail on the backend was brutal. From then on following his benching Hayes he just wasn’t in the right positions, as just coasts to back check. It just appeared as though he didn’t care, or the writing was on the wall for a divorce with the Flyers eventually.
This isn’t the Hayes that people have come to know. It’s hard to disagree with anyone when they say Hayes and the Flyers should move on. There are monies to iron out, and waiving his M-NTC to a list of 12 teams.
What was not expected at exit interviews was a bitter Kevin Hayes, “It’s weird. Had almost a career year and I was an All-Star, but never really felt like that throughout the whole season to be honest. Like I said, ups and downs. Fun year with these guys. The players on this team work extremely hard, and they love this city, and they love this team. It was a lot of fun,” Hayes said. This confirmed my fear of being checked out, per se, as the season wore on. It appears he just never got over the benching, “I picked up the message that was sent months ago. I’m okay with it. It’s their decision. I don’t want to say I’m suited for a contender, because I think I’m suited for anyone to be honest. We’ll see how that unfolds. Their decisions have probably already been made. We don’t know them yet. I’m sure I’ll find out around the draft.”
Hayes continued to elaborate, “I don’t know if they want a guy that’s making the money that I’m making playing 9-10 minutes a night. I don’t make those decisions – they do, and I’m sure they have to make them pretty quickly. Draft is coming up.”
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This is just a bad look from a player that was supposed to be a leader for the younger guys working their way up through the ranks. That’s why I personally respect James van Riemsdyk even more, he knew that the writing was on the wall for a departure, but yet he goes out with class, disappointed he didn’t get traded at the deadline, but out in class. Hayes on the other hand reminds me of someone being bitter, to the bitter end. In my opinion just hold yourself more accountable, or to a higher standard. Just do what the coach asks of you or is expected, regardless of you like it or not. Have a meeting with Tortorella like Travis Konecny, Tony DeAngelo, and Morgan Frost did. It’s to my understanding from sources familiar with the situation that Tortorella had an open door policy for those players that were willing to mee with him, and he did elaborate on that with his exit interview:
“TK came in when he was benched. Frosty came in. Tony came in. A number of players came in, so you go to the next step. I am not going to run around the locker room and look to hug players and have one-on-one meetings. I’m not. I think they understand where they sit when I’m in the group setting. If they don’t like it or they need more, door’s always open for them to come in, but I’m not going to chase them around the building for them. If they’re mad, come to me. If they need some more information, come to me. “
“If you’re playing the right minutes, you don’t care where you play. Early, I think I played 10 games at center, I think. I got signed here as a center,” Hayes said. “Torts doesn’t see it like that, but I don’t mind playing the wing honestly. I just enjoy playing. I like being out there with my teammates. That was just another thing I accepted early on in the year.”
The likeliest landing spot for Hayes are the Columbus Blue Jackets. He has been linked there for the past few months, so something has to give.
Extra Credit:
According to Noah Cates’s Instagram. Noah Cates will wear #27 next season.
27 should be in the rafters for the 2 conn smythe winners that wore that number.
This is another poorly spot picking article with zero facts to back up your point in “bitterness”. 50+ points in a none top 6 role with reduced minutes and still talking about teammates/having fun with them does not sound like a bitter player.
Being voted in the league as a top locker room guy 110% dummy’s your point.
Jamey do better than go for click’s and coward for Torts.
The guys a looser that’s why the rangers dumped him. He does not follow the NHL rules especially not wearing his visor the right way. Remember he was thrown out of a game over a year ago by the officials for that reason. A big piece of shit