John Tortorella vs Philly Reporter Who Ran With Kevin Hayes Rumor Continues To Be The Most Heated Rivalry In Hockey
A little over a month ago at this point, the Flyers traded Cutter Gauthier to the Anaheim Ducks for Jamie Drysdale after the 5th overall pick in the 2022 Draft told the organization he had no intentions on ever playing for them. Once the news got out, the rumor mill went 0-100 in a matter of seconds. You had people saying Cutter Gauthier was afraid of playing for Torts. You had people claiming Cutter Gauthier was throwing a temper tantrum over being sent back to Boston College for his sophomore season. And then you had Flyers reporter Anthony SanFilippo claim that Kevin Hayes was the puppet master behind the whole thing and soured Gauthier's relationship with the Flyers because he had a riff with Torts.
Now in SanFilippo's defense, he wasn't the only person who thought there could be some sort of connection between Hayes and Cutter. He was, however, the only credentialed member of the media to go out and say that sources told him that Hayes' fingerprints were all over it. The rest were just a bunch of bozos on Twitter.
Once Hayes and Gauthier and seemingly every member of the Flyers' upper management made it clear that Kevin Hayes had zero involvement with Cutter Gauthier's decision to not play for the Flyers, John Tortorella made it his life's mission to dummy Ant SanFilippo any chance he got.
He laid into him at the next press conference. Refused to answer a question from him at a press conference later in the month. And then last night he didn't even let SanFilippo get his question out before Torts shut that shit down.
Now you could say this is childish. You could make the case that Torts already made his point, and everyone can just move on at this point. But….that's not how John Tortorella operates. The man is nothing but consistent. So if he's going to hate you for the rest of his life, he has to remain consistent with that. This dude can hold a grudge like no other, and you have to respect that about him. He's never going to flip flop. He's never going to be fake and say something he doesn't truly believe in. If he says he's not answering any more of your questions, he's not going to answer any more of your questions.
So at the moment, Torts is up 3-0 in this rivalry series. It's certainly one sided, but I feel like the tides can change now that the stage has been set. Maybe Ant SanFilippo can show up to the next press conference in disguise. Perhaps he can pull the ol' switcheroo and get another reporter to ask one of his questions for him. He can't just sit back and take it, so now we wait and see what the response looks like.
All I know is that the Flyers have won their last 4 games in a row, so if Torts taking this grudge to his grave is working then I see no reason for him to change his behavior anytime soon. Don't fix what ain't broke.
Speaking of things that are no longer broken, Morgan Frost is so back.