A fiery competitor on the ice, Ron Hextall has mostly been a model of restraint during his time as a front office executive.
We said mostly.
Last night, the Philadelphia GM tore a strip into his charges following a 2-0 loss to the Rangers at MSG. Here’s more, from the Philadelphia Daily News:
“Are you [bleeping] kidding me?” Hextall screamed, loud enough for the media waiting next door in the locker room to hear. “That’s [bleeping] embarrassing! Jesus [bleeping] Christ!”
The door slammed, one final time, but not until it sounded as if a wastebasket bounced off the wall deep inside the bowels of Madison Square Garden - where the Flyers have now lost nine consecutive regular-season games.
To say the Flyers’ lifeless, 2-0 loss to the Rangers Wednesday night got to Hextall would be an understatement.
“That bothered me a lot,” Hextall said. “We didn’t come out hungry enough. We didn’t play very well. We’ve got to be a lot better than that. I just said I was very disappointed. Very disappointed.”
The loss was Philadelphia’s third straight, dropping the club to 13th in the Eastern Conference -- just four points up on last-place Buffalo (granted, the Sabres have played 20 games to Philly’s 17.) The defeat also dropped the Flyers to 2-6-0 on the road this year; their last win away from Wells Fargo came all the way back on Oct. 22, a 5-3 victory over the Penguins at Consol.
For Hextall, the move could’ve been to fire up his team in advance of a really tough upcoming stretch. After a two-game home set against the Wild and Jackets this week, the Flyers will play seven of their next eight on the road, which includes some really difficult matchups.
Most notably? A game in Detroit (on the 26th) followed by a back-to-back set against the Rangers, and the always-dreaded California swing in which the Flyers will play in San Jose, Anaheim and Los Anegeles in the span of five nights.