Flyers coach John Tortorella unloads in vintage rant against reporter

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Liam McCormick
January 11, 2024 (10:29)

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After last night's 3-2 shootout win over the Montreal Canadiens, Flyers coach John Tortorella got to the post-game podium with more than the team's win on his mind.

In the recent days since the Flyers traded their top prospect Cutter Gauthier, reports from the Philadelphia media emerged that former-Flyer Kevin Hayes may have soured Gauthier on the Flyers organization. Quickly, both Gauthier and Hayes denied this ever happened, and now Torts has come to the defence of his former player, even though they didn't see eye to eye in his time in Philly.

In the clip, Tortorella asks for the reporter who broke that news to reveal themselves in the room, and when he does, Tortorella unloads on the reporter. He denies Hayes had anything to do with Gauthier's situation, and questioned the journalist's integrity for putting out an erroneous and inflammatory report about a player.

It's a classic case of Tortorella delivering a fiery press conference, this time making an honourable move in defending his former player and calling out false reports. Tortorella obviously has a tough outward appearance, but his tactics are clearly working, as he has this year's subway Flyers team in the mix for a playoff spot. If this is Tortorella's last season as a head coach, he's going out looking fantastic.