Torts kicked out already, too.
I can’t believe that I am actually typing words somewhat in defense of Torts…
But as bad as his team was to start the game (really flat, losing every 50/50 battle, not clearing pucks out of the d zone despite tons of chances to do so and instead they weakly hit the puck so it doesn’t make it to the blue line… there just seemed a whole aura of inevitability that they were going to give up goals because they couldn’t get the puck out of their end… they should have just iced it a few times but didn’t/wouldnt/couldnt), that whole sequence of 10+ minutes was the refs blowing like 4 or 5 or 10 different calls in a row and giving Tampas crazy PP freebie power plays that were totally bogus, not calling things against Tampa they should have given what they DID call on the flyers….
You could see it coming…. He was stewing about how bad his team was playing and then, as the refs were trying to make it even easier for Tampa by giving them bogus power plays, he was starting to have facial ticks as the pressure built and built until he just lost it.. the hilariously bad “tripping” call they made against Philly was the final beginning of the end sequence…. It was the most glorious diving crap that they normally call against Canes so it’s kind of funny to see how it causes other coaches to melt down when the refs are so incompetent at their jobs to the point of making you question if they have money riding on the game…
It’s No excuse for him to do what he did…. Totally understand the feeling of helpless rage at the fact the refs are wildly affecting the outcome of the game with their poor job performance and absolutely nothing is being done about it…. But Torts can’t act like that and he is going to have the league come down on him…
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