Philadelphia Flyers head coach John Tortorella expressed his mea culpa on Tuesday.
The 65-year-old did not apologize to his captain, Sean Couturier, for dropping him from his squad twice last week. Instead, he apologized to members of the media for his attitude during the press conference following Sunday’s 4-1 loss.
During this duel against the Florida Panthers, goaltender Felix Sandstrom gave up three goals on only 14 shots. Tortorella was asked about his masked man’s performance. However, he refused to answer, raised his arms in the air and silently left the podium.
“I made a terrible mistake with you the other night,” Tortorella said Tuesday. You asked me about Sanny. My body language was wrong. I should have told you he was tired. Sanny tried.”
“Things happened this year that impacted our goalies. Sanny didn’t deserve this from me. You had every right to ask this question. He didn’t deserve this from me. It wasn’t right.”
The Flyers have had to make do without the services of goaltender Carter Hart since January 23. The latter is one of the five hockey players who are targeted by the alleged gang rape case which has splashed Hockey Canada. He faces a charge of sexual assault.
Coming back to Sandstrom, the 27-year-old Swede has only played five games in the National League this season. He maintained a 1-2-0 record, an .823 save percentage and a 3.87 goals-against average.
The Flyers will be in action Tuesday night, visiting the Rangers in New York. Tortorella’s team will then travel to Montreal for its Thursday evening duel against the Canadian.