Hurricane Torts erupts: John Tortorella gets ejected but won’t leave the bench and cusses out refs

TAMPA, Fla. — Flyers governor Dan Hilferty only travels to about a half-dozen Flyers games, but he made the trip to Florida to witness the trade deadline Friday and see games against the Panthers and Lightning on Thursday and Saturday. The weather was fine, but that’s not why Hilferty won’t soon forget the trip.

He got caught in the perfect storm.

You could feel it coming. After months of measured maturity fostered by lowered expectations, the fuse of hockey’s most combustible coach, now 65 and mellowed, was getting shorter and shorter. Pressure was building. Expectations had arrived with a suddenness of a thunderclap. In the past few days, John Tortorella had been getting testier and testier as the games got bigger. By Saturday night, conditions were optimal for disaster.

The Flyers were supposed to be rebuilding, but they were winning games they hadn’t planned on winning. With 18 to play, they stood in third place in the Metropolitan Division. They’d beaten the Panthers two days before in Sunrise, Fla., and they’d done so after they’d traded their best defenseman, Sean Walker. Walker’s partner, Nick Seeler, was out with a foot injury, so they’d used two rookies. They’d added two role players Friday. Then, defenseman Egor Zamula fell ill, leaving the Flyers with just five defensemen, and the barometer was falling.

» READ MORE: Roster shakeup doesn’t faze Flyers, and other takeaways from a big win at Florida

Fate’s flawless sense of humor factored, too. The Lightning chose Saturday’s visit from the Flyers to mark the 20th anniversary of their Stanley Cup win. Why? Because the coach of that team would be in the house: John Tortorella.

After several Lightning alumni were introduced on the ice, the Lightning turned the spotlight to Tortorella, who stood behind the Flyers’ bench.

Torts beamed appreciatively.

He didn’t smile again.

The Lightning scored 1 minute, 49 seconds into the game. They scored again four minutes later, after which, to no one’s surprise, pugilistic winger Nic Deslauriers dropped his gloves on the ensuing faceoff. Good fight, no effect; goal No. 3 came around the middle of the period. Then, after a weird tripping call that first went in favor of the Flyers, then against, Garnet Hathaway was assessed a 10-minute misconduct for a harmless center-ice bump during a stoppage in play, and Torts was steaming.

When the Lightning scored again, 47 seconds later, to make it 4-0, the barometer finally hit 950 millibars. With 9:11 to play in the first period, Hurricane Torts finally made landfall.

He ripped into grandstanding referee Wes McCauley, but not for long, because McCauley, offended that Tortorella was blaming the Lightning offensive deluge on the officials, quickly issued a bench minor and a game misconduct.

Tortorella ... disagreed. And he disagreed as only Tortorella disagrees: with full heart, with full lungs, with fully expressive vocabulary.

Rebelliously, delightfully, typically, as the officials motioned for him to exit the rink, he wouldn’t leave the bench. For two full minutes, the sports world was treated to an epic Tortorella tantrum.

“I’m not [expletive] going!”

“I’m not going! I’m staying right [expletive] here!” (points to the bench)

“I’m not! I’m not! You play! [Expletive] off!”

The game broadcast flashed to where the box full of Tortorella’s former Lightning players, including Brad Richards and Dave Andreychuk, had gathered to watch the game. Like everyone else, they were incredulous that Torts wouldn’t leave, kind of proud of him for refusing, and wildly entertained at the latest Torts spectacle.

Tortorella is the guy who got a 15-day suspension for trying to break into an opposing coach’s locker room to fight him. He got fined for calling Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin “whiners.” He’s been fined 12 times and suspended three more. After Saturday’s shenanigans, both of those tallies could grow by one.

After the first minute of Tortorella’s defiance, he calmed a bit and demanded to speak with McCauley before he left. Wisely, his demand was denied. So, pointing at McCauley, Torts sent his regards from afar:

“[Expletive]! That’s [B.S.]! That’s [expletive] [B.S.]!”

And, with that, the storm was over.

» READ MORE: From fines to fights, John Tortorella’s coaching career has featured plenty of controversial moments (from 2022)

Tortorella did not address the press after the game, which left associate coach Brad Shaw to try to explain the Tortorella’s spectacle.

“He wasn’t happy,” Shaw said. “It was a bit of a protest, I guess, on his part, to hammer home the point that he wasn’t very ecstatic about the call.”

Amalie Arena features just one elevator to the press box, which also houses the visiting executives’ box. After Tortorella finally left the bench, Hilferty took the first elevator down to ice level, presumably to confer with the coach. I saw him get off the elevator. I asked him his opinion on the spectacle.

He declined, shook my hand, and smiled.

So did I.

After all, there’s nothing as refreshing as a good, strong storm.