After the Philadelphia Flyers were shutout to the New York Rangers 2-0 Wednesday night, the typical postgame interviews were conducted. Typical questions such as “What happened…How did you feel…Why did the team lose?” You know, the usual with the expected answers, “We just didn’t play well…Poor execution…We weren’t on the same page…We can play better.”
But something out of the ordinary happened on this night. General Manager Ron Hextall went “Hextall” on his team after their performance on Madison Square Garden. Known as a fiery player in his playing days, the wrath finally presented itself before the players.
CSNPhilly.com’s correspondent Tim Pinnaccio sent out this tweet:
Hextall teed off on team after game: "Are you [bleeping] kidding me!." He and Berube very upset w/lack of pushback, emotion, competitiveness
— Tim Panaccio (@tpanotchRET) November 20, 2014
According to CSNPhilly.com, an article they posted yesterday reported the GM “teed off” using other “figurative” words that your mother would wash your mouth out with soap if she caught you saying them.
Even though the score was close and by no means a blowout, it was the effort of the Flyers team that may have prompted the general manager to come down from the press box and lay the smackdown. If it were not for the goaltending of Steve Mason, the score could have easily been doubled or even tripled. It wasn’t that the Rangers completely dominated, even though they did execute, controlled the puck, and played an all-around game. It was more of the Flyers just not seeming to be involved. The excuse of being tired could not have been used. Before Wednesday’s game, the Flyers last played on four days earlier against the Montreal Canadiens. It was all on Mason and with little help from his defensemen that night.
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After being scolded like children from Hextall and head coach Greg Berube, you would assume the team would rally around that and dominate their next opponent. Ehhh, wrong. Last night, they hosted the Minnesota Wild. They gave Mason a much deserved night off, as Ray Emery stepped in. Yes, the Flyers did look more engaged and played more Flyers hockey instead of the Bad News Bears on skates. Perhaps , it was the familiarity of the Wells Fargo Ice or being surrounded by the sea of orange from the Flyer faithful. However, the team was down 1-0 in the second period before tying up the score. After falling behind again and then bringing the score back to even, the dagger in the heart was a late third period goal by the Wild. The Flyers lost 3-2. The message was heard but still the same result.
This Hextall altercation reminded me of a film starring Brad Pitt. The movie was called Moneyball. In it, he plays Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane, who builds a team using analytics in MLB and leads them to a playoff appearance. There is a scene early in the movie where the team dropped a game at home, further extending their losing streak. In the locker room, the players are seen taking it easy, joking, one player s even dancing to the music in the room onto top of a chair. Beane walks in and and scolds the team, throwing bats and Gatorade coolers. His question to the team was: Is losing fun?
Hextall represented every frustrated fan of any team that night. After a poor showing, you want to go and yell at your players and say what’s on your of mind. Unfortunately, we can’t do that. But Hextall can.
It’s times like these, I wish I were in his shoes.