GMs need to give LTIR feedback to Bettman and Daly
TSN: LTIR was not on the agenda for the GM meetings but the topic has come up according to Pierre LeBrun. Gary Bettman and Bill Daly advised the GM executive committee to speak with all the GM’s over the next few months and comeback to them with some feedback, and then they could go to the NHLPA if need be.
“I think it’s a constructive way to do it and if you think of the guys who are on the committee: Doug Armstrong, Ken Holland, Kevin Cheveldayoff, Lou Lamoriello, Don Waddell and Steve Yzerman – each of those members of the committee are responsible for a group of four or five GMs each and each of those guys and those are the guys going to talk about this issue and we’ll see if they find consensus and they may not, they may just say it’s not worth the conversation that it’s going to require with the players, but then again they may say it’s time to tweak the way this works in terms of no salary cap in the playoffs. ”
Agent not thrilled that Sean Couturier was a healthy scratch
Kevin Kurz of The Athletic: Philadelphia Flyers captain Sean Couturier was made a healthy scratch on Tuesday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Coach John Tortorella is never shy to sit someone out if he’s not happy with their play.
Couturier has one goal in his past 27 games and only one assist in his last nine. Couturier’s ice time has been decreasing since January 13th, down almost four minutes a game. He was name captain on February 14th.
As of Tuesday afternoon Erik Lupien hadn’t spoken to Couturier about being a healthy scratch that night, but did say:
“From my point of view, when I saw the news (Couturier was scratched), I’m like, I really hope the communication why and the reasons why are really clear. I hope he’s going to get an explanation soon because he’s the captain, a leader of the team, and he has ‘Philadelphia’ tattooed on his chest since he got drafted. That’s why he wanted to sign there and to sign a long contract. I hope he’s going to get that respect from John Tortorella.”
Tortorella after the game on Tuesday: “putting the players out on the ice to win a particular game, and these were the 20 that we decided to go with.”
Guillaume Villemaire tweeted that Couturier was the first captain (excluding end-of-season load management) since Ed Jovanovski back in 2013-14 to be a healthy scratch.
Lupien doesn’t think Couturier isn’t going to learn anything sitting in the press box, and if there’s no communication between Couturier and Tortorella, it’s not good.
“With your captain, you have to work together as a team. You want to send a message to the other guys, it has to go through your captain and your assistant. So now you’re not communicating with him. So, OK, what’s next?”