The whole of Saturday’s Flyers vs. Lightning game was spent in the locker room by John Tortorella, the current coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning, as the team commemorated the 20th anniversary of the 2004 Stanley Cup-winning squad under his direction.
He didn’t, however, go there without a struggle.
At 9:11 in the first quarter, with the Flyers behind 4-0, referee Wes McCauley ejected Tortorella from the game.
After an unsatisfactory tripping call to Ronnie Attard, Brayden Point scored on a power play, and Tortorella was ejected.
After McCauley announced the bench penalty and game misconduct to Tortorella, cameras showed him saying, “Not a f–king chance,” “f–k off,” and “I’m not f–king going,” staying on the bench and refusing to leave.
At one point, cameras cut to members of the 2004 Lightning watching from their suite and laughing at Tortorella’s antics.
After close to two minutes of staying put and yelling obscenities at the referees, the former Rangers coach made his way down the tunnel.
Tortorella didn’t talk after the game, but Flyers assistant coach Brad Shaw addressed the situation.
“I think he was just trying to make a point that we felt like we might not have been getting our fair shake,” Shaw said. “It’s an emotional game at times, and we all get elevated blood pressure.”
Tortorella is no stranger to fiery outbursts.
As the coach of the Vancouver Canucks in 2014, he was suspended for 15 days for attempting to go into the Calgary Flames locker room to object to a fight.
He was fined $25,000 for leaving a press conference early in 2020 as the head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets.
