During his time as a player in the NHL, Ron Hextall developed a reputation as a pretty fiery guy (as evidenced here, and just for good measure, here). So it's no surprise that after his Philadelphia Flyers dropped a listless 2-0 affair to the New York Rangers in Madison Square Garden last night, the now-general manager decided to take them to task in a particularly heated fashion.
"Are you [bleeping] kidding me?" Hextall screamed, according to Frank Seravalli of The Philadelphia Daily News. "That's [bleeping] embarrassing! Jesus [bleeping] Christ!"
Hextall, after watching his team put up little to no fight and losing puck battle after puck battle, decided after the game to enter the changing room, an area generally regarded as off-limits to team management, to deliver his message.
The loss marked Philadelphia's ninth consecutive regular-season victory-less effort at MSG.
Later, when speaking to reporters, Hextall wasn't nearly as vociferous, but reiterated his displeasure with the way his squad played.
"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."
This actually marks the first time since he's taken over as GM that Hextall acted in a manner which hearkened back to his playing days. For the most part, he's been calm, cool and collected, dealing with players and the media with a quiet, firm manner.
But after a game that saw the Flyers show life only in the last few minutes before eventually being shut out by the Rangers back-up goalie, Cam Talbot, he couldn't hold back his anger.
"You've got to play hard in this league and we didn't do that," coach Craig Berube said. "It's just soft plays. What upsets me more than anything is being soft in your own end. That's where it starts. Not being physical, not closing in on people fast, and coming out and making soft plays out of our zone. [Hextall] is probably not very happy after that performance. And I don't blame him."
