Flyers star Jakub Voracek called a journalist a “weasel” during an impressive run Friday night.
Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Mike Sielski, who criticized Voracek last October, asked the 31-year-old striker if this unprecedented season felt different.
Appearing agitated as Sielski spoke, Voracek buried his head in his hands and replied, “No matter what I say, Mike, you’ll write shit like a king every time.”
His teammate Travis Konecky, who was also on the podium during the video call, almost spat out the drink.
Voracek then said he felt “different” this season, paused and continued to scold Sielski.
“I wouldn’t even answer your question, you’re a weasel that’s not even fun,” said Voracek, a native Czech. “Next question.”
The two players laughed briefly as another reporter began to ask a question about the Flyers ’5-2 victory over rivals Penguins.
Sielski, in an interview with Philadelphia-based website Crossing Broad, suggested that Voracek’s anger could have originated in a column he wrote last season when the Flyers were 5-5-1 and broke away. of skewed losses.
Sielski wrote that Voracek and teammate James van Riemsdyk were laughing while head coach Alain Vigneault urged his “best players to lead us.”
He said he apologized and updated the column after the Flyers’ public relations department contacted him “because they thought he was writing Voracek and van Riemsdyk laughing at Alain Vigneault.”
If Voracek said he was laughing at his coach, Sielski wrote in the updated column: “Well, Vigneault has already dropped Voracek to the fourth line once this season and maybe it’s time for a Flyers coach to point out the limitations of both players. the franchise has been considered and treated for years as indispensable, “the other player being captain Claude Giroux.
Sielski, who has been the Inquirer’s sports columnist for seven years, said he offered to “smooth things out” with Voracek.
It seems like this never happened.
Voracek tweeted on Saturday that Sielski never contacted him after the incident, “because he knew he was going to break up. Trust me I would love to [meet] face to face. That was our first interaction since then, “he said in reference to Friday’s video call.
Access to the media has declined since March, when it stopped last season due to the coronavirus. Since then, face-to-face interviews have been banned.
Sielski defended himself Saturday morning after his latest tweets that seemed to criticize Voracek resurfaced.
A tweet that Sielski wrote in 2016 said: “The #Flyers are collapsing and it’s Jake Voracek’s fault. My column: “
He said it was written in jest.
“There’s no column,” he said. “It’s a ‘joke I make all the time.’
The Flyers came in this season, which started three months later than usual and looks like no other due to the outbreak of COVID-19, as a popular choice to win the Stanley Cup.
Voracek, who is in his fifth year on an eight-year, $ 66 million contract, got two assists in Friday’s win.