Sean Couturier about to get healthy scratched 34 days after being named the new Flyers' Captain

[Skinnyjimmy08]

Coaches are behind the bench to make the best decisions to help win games. Torts obviously felt Couturier hasnt been good and needed to sit a game.

People get so bent out of shape sometimes when coaches make a decision that they don't agree with.

It all worked out and Philly ended up winning a big game... I love the fact that Torts holds everyone accountable on his teams always and doesn't wimp out like most coaches and be scared to make bold decisions like this.

 

[sbhnur]

Unfortunately he never has been healthy enough since his last big injury. Was injured a lot in his career. So healthy scratch doesn't tell the whole story. I think it's good if they give him some rest through the season.

 

[Channelcat]

I hate this idea that you can't sit players (top 10 guys)

 

[NickyFotiu]

Torts loves drama and attention. His team could be undefeated and he would still find a way for these types of headlines.

 

[PaulD]

Torts loves drama and attention. His team could be undefeated and he would still find a way for these types of headlines.

JT gets headlines for more than the controversial stuff.
•Won a Cup
•Took out the first place record setting Lightening 4 straight with a medicire Jackets line up.
•Took out the leafs in first round. O, so what, who hasn't?
Team needed a win last night. I thought it was a bit much scratching those guys.
But again Torts shows once again why he is still coaching ( and coaching well) 20 years after winning the Cup.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

Did it work?

 

[Winston Wolf]

It worked? They won one game (luckily, I might add) and Tortorella has caused drama that isn't going away anytime soon. Also, this has nothing to do with resting Couturier. If Tortorella said that, this would be a non-issue. He's told the media and the player "he has to be better" and that's it. Considering Couturier's history with the team and actual injury history, this is a BS way to treat a player. That's been echoed by TSN, as well as other former players on social media.

It's literally exactly what he wanted. Named Couturier captain out of the blue, started slashing his ice time the very next game and then playing him with Deslauriers. Create drama to get the locker room "motivated" while completely ignoring any long term implications of this stunt.

And for everyone who thinks Tortorella is some kind of genius, this team would easily have been in the bottom three in the conference if he would've gotten his way about moving Sanheim last year. Luckily for boy genius, Krug denied waiving his NTC and Sanheim is still here and in the top 20 for defenseman scoring with only 5 PP points.

 

[SeanMoneyHands]

Overrated player. 8M a year for this guy? lol

 

[Jetsfan79]

There's problem when a coach says " you need to work on A,
B and C " before you can get back in the lineup and the player says " I AM working on A , B and C".

Even if the coach is right, it's his job to make the player see what the coach sees. ESPECIALLY if the player is the teams captain and in theory should be in lock step with the coaches message.

Treating all the players the same is fine and dandy. But if your needing to scratch your captain , not in game bench him but actually scratch him , then either it was the wrong decision to give him the C or its time to reevaluate if he should still be the C.

 

[LudwigVonKarlsson]

Well everyone else anyways

Is he supposed to put on some gear and play or something?

 

[Mattb124]

20+ years ago this barely would have been a story but I guess now we've gotta overreact about everything these days.

Underperforming hockey player gets benched, more at 11

Over-reaction is America’s new #1 past time.

 

[Beau Knows]

Is he supposed to put on some gear and play or something?

I was referring to how he's managed to get himself suspended 4 times, which is not easy to do as a coach.

Does he ever learn anything, the way his players are meant to when they get benched or scratched? It certainly doesn't seem like he does.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

It worked? They won one game (luckily, I might add) and Tortorella has caused drama that isn't going away anytime soon. Also, this has nothing to do with resting Couturier. If Tortorella said that, this would be a non-issue. He's told the media and the player "he has to be better" and that's it. Considering Couturier's history with the team and actual injury history, this is a BS way to treat a player. That's been echoed by TSN, as well as other former players on social media.

It's literally exactly what he wanted. Named Couturier captain out of the blue, started slashing his ice time the very next game and then playing him with Deslauriers. Create drama to get the locker room "motivated" while completely ignoring any long term implications of this stunt.

And for everyone who thinks Tortorella is some kind of genius, this team would easily have been in the bottom three in the conference if he would've gotten his way about moving Sanheim last year. Luckily for boy genius, Krug denied waiving his NTC and Sanheim is still here and in the top 20 for defenseman scoring with only 5 PP points.

Philadelphia is dog meat on paper settle down friend , guess your multi millionaire player's feelings are more important than results. Enjoy it while it lasts cuz he is 100% gonna lose the room soon but at least you guys are in a playoff spot

 

[Rich Nixon]

Philadelphia is dog meat on paper settle down friend , guess your multi millionaire player's feelings are more important than results. Enjoy it while it lasts cuz he is 100% gonna lose the room soon but at least you guys are in a playoff spot

The playoff spot is a bad thing from many fans' perspectives. I mean, there are the hyper-casuals who just go "HELL YEAH PLAYOFFS" but I think most people with a decent understanding of what the Flyers have in terms of roster and prospect talent look at it as a step backwards. And the precise reason a lot of us didn't like the Tortorella hiring is because he does have a knack for getting talentless teams to overachieve, so the timing is pretty bad for a team that badly needs to be accruing more talent.

I mean, under other circumstances they'd be a bottom-10 or bottom-5 team in the league, they'd have a decent draft pick, and there'd be organizational willingness to trade off Konecny and Tippett and Laughton and whoever else and actually start positioning themselves to get high-end young talent so when Michkov comes over, he's not going it alone.

Instead you already see the franchise beginning to get high on its own 8th-place success: A long Tippett extension already signed and a $9m+ 8-year deal for Konecny reportedly ready to go for this summer. Too precious on Laughton and they already turned down a great offer there last summer.

It's a team that needed a gutting and a proper rebuild, and instead is just going to be another patchwork of overpaid, post-prime middling players without much of a prospect cupboard. Just as they have been for the last decade.

Unlike, say, a Blue Jackets fan (and no offense to them), most long-time Flyers fans patently do not give a shit about a playoff appearance or a first round series win. I saw them in the Conference Finals 4 times before my 15th birthday. We want a stacked war machine that can get the real job done...not a scrappy underdog built on shot blocks and dreams. This Tortorella experiment is a sidetrack that will end up delaying that even further.

 

[Fight4yourRight]

Overrated player. 8M a year for this guy? lol

Idiotic comment. Dude was a 70-75 pt 1C and in the running again for the Selke before his back surgeries. He’s been away almost two years before getting back and pacing for over 50+ pts again before likely another injury since January.

 

[My3Sons]

Idiotic comment. Dude was a 70-75 pt 1C and in the running again for the Selke before his back surgeries. He’s been away almost two years before getting back and pacing for over 50+ pts again before likely another injury since January.

Do you think that many fans of other teams pay attention to anything beyond low hanging fruit? Especially on this board. it's a constant stream of crapping on players the posters don't watch on teams they don't care about or actively dislike. It says more about those posters than the target of their commentary.

 

[The Burdened]

I seem no problem with it. It sends the message that everyone will be held accountable. Accountability is lost in this day and age.
It also shouldn't be that big of a deal. Coots should rally and will probably play better and be more motivated to lead by example.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

The playoff spot is a bad thing from many fans' perspectives. I mean, there are the hyper-casuals who just go "HELL YEAH PLAYOFFS" but I think most people with a decent understanding of what the Flyers have in terms of roster and prospect talent look at it as a step backwards. And the precise reason a lot of us didn't like the Tortorella hiring is because he does have a knack for getting talentless teams to overachieve, so the timing is pretty bad for a team that badly needs to be accruing more talent.

I mean, under other circumstances they'd be a bottom-10 or bottom-5 team in the league, they'd have a decent draft pick, and there'd be organizational willingness to trade off Konecny and Tippett and Laughton and whoever else and actually start positioning themselves to get high-end young talent so when Michkov comes over, he's not going it alone.

Instead you already see the franchise beginning to get high on its own 8th-place success: A long Tippett extension already signed and a $9m+ 8-year deal for Konecny reportedly ready to go for this summer. Too precious on Laughton and they already turned down a great offer there last summer.

It's a team that needed a gutting and a proper rebuild, and instead is just going to be another patchwork of overpaid, post-prime middling players without much of a prospect cupboard. Just as they have been for the last decade.

Unlike, say, a Blue Jackets fan (and no offense to them), most long-time Flyers fans patently do not give a shit about a playoff appearance or a first round series win. I saw them in the Conference Finals 4 times before my 15th birthday. We want a stacked war machine that can get the real job done...not a scrappy underdog built on shot blocks and dreams. This Tortorella experiment is a sidetrack that will end up delaying that even further.

Oh I totally agree with you , habs were in a similar situation for a while , they never wanted to rebuild , we got lucky and got blessed by a rebuild but teams like NYR BOS PHI MTL just have a hard time selling a full blown rebuild to the fans. I feel for you guys really

 

[Reality Czech]

14 years ago John MacLean and the Devils healthy scratched Kovalchuk...

it made national news, every hockey outlet ran a story and it rattled on for days... it certainly had a thread here.

Of course, Kovalchuk was a better player than Couturier... but was not the teams captain.

Something so novel being a story is not really surprising, how many times in NHL history has a captain been a healthy scratch? Let alone a captain who was only named captain a month ago.

That may be so, but that's why I said 20+ years ago. And even if Kovy was scratched, I'm sure it ended up being a nothingburger.

You are right that it's an interesting story to talk about, but in the end it doesn't have to mean much. Maybe it will light a fire under some guys, or at least shake them up enough to play better. I bet fans and media are freaking out more than the players are. But I guess one reason we follow sports is for the drama and Torts rarely disappoints in that regard.

 

[BenningHurtsMySoul]

Torts is such a weird coach. He comes across as such a hardass, but then stories come out of his charity work and going the extra mile for his players if they have shit going on in their personal lives. And then he goes and plays mindgames like this.

I'll never understand him.

 

[PaulD]

It worked? They won one game (luckily, I might add) and Tortorella has caused drama that isn't going away anytime soon. Also, this has nothing to do with resting Couturier. If Tortorella said that, this would be a non-issue. He's told the media and the player "he has to be better" and that's it. Considering Couturier's history with the team and actual injury history, this is a BS way to treat a player. That's been echoed by TSN, as well as other former players on social media.

It's literally exactly what he wanted. Named Couturier captain out of the blue, started slashing his ice time the very next game and then playing him with Deslauriers. Create drama to get the locker room "motivated" while completely ignoring any long term implications of this stunt.

And for everyone who thinks Tortorella is some kind of genius, this team would easily have been in the bottom three in the conference if he would've gotten his way about moving Sanheim last year. Luckily for boy genius, Krug denied waiving his NTC and Sanheim is still here and in the top 20 for defenseman scoring with only 5 PP points.

I don't know anyone who thinks Torts is a genius. Just a damn good hockey coach.

 

[NickyFotiu]

JT gets headlines for more than the controversial stuff.
•Won a Cup
•Took out the first place record setting Lightening 4 straight with a medicire Jackets line up.
•Took out the leafs in first round. O, so what, who hasn't?
Team needed a win last night. I thought it was a bit much scratching those guys.
But again Torts shows once again why he is still coaching ( and coaching well) 20 years after winning the Cup.

More than one thing can be true. Torts still loves drama. He seeks it out. I know plenty of his good and bad. I saw how my Rangers team looked like they hated the game in his last season and how they turned on him in their exit interviews. Few people are all good or all bad. Torts has good points and he has bad points. If you like him more power to you. I would never want him as my teams coach again. By the way Torts would like that you said he won a cup. Not that the Tampa team that he coached won a cup because that is how he may view things at times in my opinion.

 

[PhysicalGraffiti]

This is like many other folks in the NHL, players/coaches etc. HF Boards think they know what's best and declare people locker room issues, buffoons, etc, yet the actual people around them say the complete opposite.

Funny how that works.

I also feel like a certain group here doesn't enjoy people being held accountable.

 

[ClydeLee]

Isn't the point to make the player himself better afterward?

 

[PaulD]

More than one thing can be true. Torts still loves drama. He seeks it out. I know plenty of his good and bad. I saw how my Rangers team looked like they hated the game in his last season and how they turned on him in their exit interviews. Few people are all good or all bad. Torts has good points and he has bad points. If you like him more power to you. I would never want him as my teams coach again. By the way Torts would like that you said he won a cup. Not that the Tampa team that he coached won a cup because that is how he may view things at times in my opinion.

While Penguins are circling the drain and fans are calling fur Sullys dismissal, How many times have we heard coach "Mike Sullivan won two cups".
The fact the team won the cups is assumed.
But I agree in that a lot players may have hated him by his last season in New York. Similar were the players of Pat Burns in Montreal. Keenan on all the teams he coached. ha! Babcock, Sutter.
Bowman was not liked by players in Montreal - "until they got their rings and bonuses cheques" as Steve Shutt never get tired of saying. lol
All those coaches won Cups.
I hear all the players loved Boudreau and the Leafs all love Keefe. Two coaches who haven't come close to sniffing a cup.
Point is ......coaching in the NHL ain't a popularity contest.