John Tortorella and Kevin Hayes butt heads over healthy scratch.

Over the weekend Philadelphia Flyers head coach John Tortorella kicked up a bit of a controversy, shocking I know, when he made the move to make his leading scorer a healthy scratch. Tortorella was clearly unhappy with the play of veteran forward Kevin Hayes and effectively made an example of him when he forced him to sit out Saturday's game against the New York Rangers.

The issue between the player and coach seemed to stem from a game earlier in the week against the New Jersey Devils in which Hayes would wind up riding the bench. Many speculated that a particularly sloppy turnover from Hayes in the second period may have been at the root of Tortorella's displeasure.

Here is that turnover:

While there's little doubt that Hayes' benching in the Devils game was a result of the turnover, on Monday Tortorella denied that there was any link between that play and his decision to scratch Hayes over the weekend.

“I will never lie to a player about anything. … I know you guys think it’s about a turnover," said Tortorella. "I will never bench a guy over a turnover.”

When asked to clarify his motivations for scratching Hayes, Tortorella refused to elaborate and insisted he holds everyone to the same standard.

“There is no disconnect as far as I’m concerned," said the Flyers head coach.

Hayes it would seem may disagree with that statement however given that he continued to express his displeasure with the coach's decision on Monday. While Hayes made no secret of the fact that he didn't like the decision, he did express that in the end it was Tortorella's decision to make as the head coach of the team.

“I don’t think I should have been benched, but he’s the coach, I’m the player," said Hayes on Monday.

I doubt that Tortorella's answer on the matter today will do much to satisfy his detractors, detractors that include former Flyers defenseman Keith Yandle who was very critical of Tortorella over the weekend.