It would probably be the understatement of the year to say that tonight’s game in Tampa is off to a suboptimal start for the Flyers.
It began with the Flyers falling behind very early after conceding a goal to Victor Hedman before we even hit the two minute mark.
Then it was Ronnie Attard called for a questionable holding penalty on Anthony Cirelli. And a power play goal.
Then it was a Nic Deslauriers fight meant to spark some pushback for the Flyers. And another Lightning goal.
And then it was another questionable tripping call made on Ronnie Attard. And then a ten-minute misconduct for Garnet Hathaway after he shoved a Lightning player during a stoppage. And another Lightning goal.
All of this served to fire up head coach John Tortorella to a degree higher than we can imagine in recent memory. But this ire wasn’t leveled at his team for falling behind by a four goal margin by the time we had barely passed the midpoint of the first period. That ire was fully directed at the officials on the ice for the — to repeat our phrasing — questionable bit of work done so far.
All of this earned the Flyers a minor penalty for a coach entering the playing surface, and earned Tortorella himself a game misconduct.
So assistant coach Brad Shaw is left to run the show for the rest of this game, and the skaters left to stop the bleeding on a game that seems to have already gotten itself wildly out of hand. And maybe we look at this one as a wash, however it ends up, whatever the score winds up being. Weird and bad games happen, and we all find a way to keep it moving and shift our focus to the next one.
But this moment will easily be enshrined as a high point for fans when thinking about this season and Tortorella’s tenure. What’s more iconic than a coach going to bat for his teamed so hard that he gets tossed from the game? Truly legendary stuff.
