Recap: Flyers Young Guns Step up; Kevin Hayes drama continues

We can all agree (maybe not Chuck Fletcher, he’s in another world) that this Flyers season is for laying a foundation within the team, developing young players and picking out who’s going to be here and who’s not come when this team is ready to compete in the playoffs.

Frosty & Tippett

The first two parts of that has shown strong recently. In the last 8 games, Morgan Frost has 3G-4A-7P and Owen Tippett has 4G-2A-6P.

Morgan Frost Leading Flyers to Victory

Morgan Frost (6) has officially arrived in the NHL. #FueledByPhilly
pic.twitter.com/nBTn4TUI1Q
— TLY (@TheLibertyYell) December 21, 2022

That includes last night, where both found the back of the net (Tippett twice) and were the best line for the O&B alongside James van Riemsdyk.

I mean…they’ve been the best line for Tortorella for a couple weeks now.

If that wasn’t enough Frost propaganda for you, I have more.

From the beginning of the season to December 7th Morgan Frost has had a 1.81 xGF/60. Since December 7th to last night’s Flyers game against Columbus, Frost has had a 3.25 xGF/60.

Not only are the points finally coming for Morgan, but he’s generating more offense as a whole as well.

We don’t talk enough about how much van Riemsdyk has helped Morgan and Owen out since forming their line together.

I’ve shit on James before and stand by what I said, but his role in helping these young kids start to tap into the potential they have can’t be ignored.

Is James still an overpaid “sniper” that goes ghost for periods of time that are too long to label “a sniper slump”, yes.

Can we still acknowledge the good he’s done with these two? Yes.

Kevin Hayes

Everyone who hasn’t been hiding under a rock knows the drama that’s happening right now between Kevin Hayes and John Tortorella.

Torts sat Hayes in the 3rd period against the Devils and let Hayes take in the game from the press box with Briere the next matchup against the Rangers.

Bill Lindsay, on NHL Network, had a beautifully long breakdown on why Kevin Hayes was eating popcorn against the Rangers.

Kevin Hayes was a healthy scratch for the Philadelphia Flyers over the weekend.

What led up to the decision being made? #FueledByPhilly @EJHradek_NHL | @Hartsy43 | @LindsayBHockey | #NHLNow pic.twitter.com/WxS8cSHaM3
— NHL Network (@NHLNetwork) December 19, 2022

I’m not going to go into details on why some people in Flyers land need to stop crying because Torts didn’t answer the medias “How did Kevin do tonight” question after the Flyers’ win yesterday.

I’ll let Drew Smith do that.

Everyone and their mother knows that the Flyers media would find a way to twist what Torts would say and this entire thing would become more public than Hayes already made it.

This is between a coach and a player. The media needs to stop acting like Torts needs to break down every game and give you a status update on players game performances because you can’t go watch tape by yourself.

There’s a reason John didn’t want to answer that question, and it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure it out.

Listen to the new episode of The Liberty Yell tonight!