One of the more memorable moments of Saturday’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers was John Tortorella getting tossed by referee Wes McCauley following a Tampa Bay Lightning power play goal.
Tortorella did not speak to the press following the game, but assistant coach Brad Shaw answered a few questions and offered his opinion on what set Torts off,
“I think he was just trying to make a point that we felt like we might not been getting our fair shake, but you know it’s an emotional game at times and we all get elevated blood pressure. It’s just part of the game. “
When asked if he thought it was a quick hook, Shaw declined to answer, stating,
“I’m not going to speculate whether or not it was the right call. It’s an emotional game and Wes decided that was the right thing to do. That’s his decision in the moment.”
During the night, Elliotte Friedman postulated that while it was all fun and games on social media to see Tortorella yell at the refs and then refuse to leave, the league wouldn’t look kindly upon it. Sure enough they didn’t. Instead of their usual $25,000 fine for abuse of the officials that they usually dole out for these types of incidents, Tortorella was suspended for two games and fined $50,000.
Prior to the handing down of the punishment, Flyers CEO Dan Hilferty pledged to pay any fine his head coach was assessed and praised his leadership, telling Al Morganti,
“This new era of Orange is about having each other’s backs. Last night, Torts had our collective backs. I respect any action the league might feel a need to take but if it includes a fine, I am paying it.”
The Flyers next two games are Tuesday against the Sharks and Thursday against the Maple Leafs with both games being at home.
Other Hockey News
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Breaking out some charts to see what Dumba may be able to help the Lightning out with down the stretch. It would be great if he scored a bunch of goals and prevented a bunch of goals (top notch analysis, eh?)
Syracuse Speaks: What happened to the original plot [Syracuse Speaks]
Blog Auntie Alex is back with her take on the deadline and how it affected the Crunch. Have the Lightning lost the thread that made them successful?
Crunch 4, Rochester 2 [Syracuse Crunch]
The Crunch’s seasonal domination of the Rochester Americans continues with a 4-2 win to run their seasonal record against their North Division rivals to 7-0-2-1. Hugo Alnefelt stopped 17-of-19 shots while Alex Barre-Boulet, Jack Finley, Cole Koepke, and Waltteri Merela scored. Finley, Koepke, and Gage Goncalves all had two points on the night and the win pushed them into first place (by percentage points) in the North.
Logan O’Connor done for the season [Puck Yeti]
The Avs were one of the busier teams at the trade deadline, and it looks like it was for a good reason as forward Logan O’Connor is out following season-ending hip surgery. Colorado also announced that Gabriel Landeskog isn’t likely to return until May 10 at the earliest. Which is still pretty impressive considering he had experimental surgery less than a year ago.
Will there be a demand to change LTIR in the next CBA? [Sportsnet]
It appeared the Lightning walk so that the Golden Knights could fly when it comes to maximizing the cap flexibility that LTIR provides. Did Vegas go to far? It sounds like some folks (who had the chance to do something years ago) might think so and some changes could be coming when the next CBA is created in 2026.
Matt Boldy scored an overtime goal against the Nashville Predators on Sunday. Cool moment, but nothing really special, right? Well, if you noticed, it was a 4-on-3 goal for the Wild. No, it wasn’t a power play goal. The Wild had pulled Marc-Andre Fleury for the extra skater. The risk in doing that in overtime is that if Nashville had scored on the empty net, the Wild would have lost the point they picked up for getting it to overtime.
With the Wild 8 points out of a playoff spot entering the game, coach John Hynes decided that there was no difference between one point or two points. Minnesota needed two points so he took the risk.
Love or hate the Bruins, this might be the greatest Goalie Hockey Hug of all time
