Philadelphia Flyers head coach John Tortorella was ejected from Saturday’s game against the Tampa Lightning after going after the officials.
With the Flyers already down 4-0 a bit over halfway through the first period, Tortorella was frustrated with the officiating in the game and went after the referees, with a particular focus on Wes McCauley. What specifically caused the outburst is not known at this time, but Brayden Point had just scored to make it 4-0 off of a power play from a Garnet Hathaway penalty, so it’s possible that he was frustrated with the call, along with the way the game was developing with the 4-0 score.
What was more out of the ordinary (although with Tortorella, nothing is truly out of the ordinary) was that after the ejection, Tortorella refused to leave the bench. He continued to berate the officials after the ejection, but after a few moments, he finally agreed to leave. But in typical Torts fashion, he didn’t go out easily.
To add some extra drama, this ejection came on the night that the Lightning were honouring their 2004 Stanley Cup winning team – which Tortorella was the coach of. That 2003-04 team went 46-22-8-6 during the regular season, and bested the New York Islanders, Montreal Canadiens, Philadelphia Flyers and Calgary Flames in the playoffs to win the Stanley Cup.
Tortorella spent seven seasons as the head coach of the Lightning, coaching a total of 535 games for a 239-222-36-38 record, making the playoffs in four of those seasons. He then went on to coach for the New York Rangers, Vancouver Canucks and Columbus Blue Jackets before his current stop with the Flyers.
The Flyers currently sit in third in the Metropolitan Division with a 33-23-8 record, which gives them a four point cushion on the New York Islanders who could usurp them for that playoff spot.
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