"Maybe I Should Start Teaching Them How To Dive" - John Tortorella Is Fed Up With The NHL Turning Into The NBA
First of all, you know we're in for a banger anytime Torts walks into a room full of reporters and says "let me start". The man has 2 gears when it comes to talking to the media. He's either going to give you a bunch of one-word answers for 13 seconds and then storm off, or he's going to go scorched Earth. There's really no in between, so this was a treat.
Yesterday's game in Boston was a complete mess after the 1st period. The Flyers got out to a 3-1 lead and then the wheels completely fell off. 3 penalties in the 3rd period as the Bruins kept building momentum, as the Flyers set out to be the most undisciplined team in hockey history. They blow the 2-goal lead, and Boston wins the game in overtime. That's 2 games in a row now where the Flyers have blown a lead in the 3rd period, and had a combined 8 penalties in the 3rd period of both those games.
Obviously it sounds like Torts has an issue with those last 2 calls against the Flyers. And I'll give him the one on Hathaway for sure. I don't necessarily know if I'd consider that a dive by Lohrei as much as it's just an awful call. I don't think Mason Lohrei was trying to sell the call there, I just think he stinks at skating and lost his edge. Considering the refs waited about 5 seconds to listen to the reaction from the crowd at TD Garden before calling the penalty just solidifies how awful of a call it was. The trip on Pastrnak by Couturier was 100% a trip, so it is what it is.
But I'm sure most of Torts' frustration here comes from that piece of Long Island street trash, Charlie McAvoy, going after Matvei Michkov earlier in the game for what that dumbass thought was a dive.
Just classic FLID behavior from McAvoy here. You two-hand chop a guy in the shins and then somehow get mad at him for going down. Not quite sure if you know how legs work, but it makes it difficult for someone to remain standing upright when the legs get chopped out from underneath of them. I'd love to see anyone here take a two-hand chop from Charlie McAvoy to the shins, and still try to say that Michkov sold that one. McAvoy forgot to turn his brain on yesterday, his wires were jumbled up everywhere, he ends up spazzing out and spends the rest of the day trying to get back at Michkov.
It's just crazy because out of every team in the NHL, you'd think the Bruins would know the most about how diving works.
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At the end of the day, I really don't know how many dives there actually were in yesterday's game. Probably not many. But there were enough weak calls and missed calls that John Tortorella had to say something up there without explicitly saying that the refs were a complete joke. Brutal loss for the Flyers, but at least we quote another banger out of the quote machine from Torts, and a 2-goal game out of Michkov. I'm willing to consider that a wash.
Sidenote: I'm sure a lot of people are still going to be upset with Torts' decision to sit TK for the overtime after he came back cleared from concussion protocol. There have been plenty of moments so far this season where Torts' has allowed Konecny to get away with a few bonehead decisions because of how much he brings to the table offensively. But it's tough not to send a message to the guys after Konecny takes a dumb penalty late in the 3rd period in the very next game after you just bitched out the team for taking awful situational penalties late in games. Maybe if this wasn't directly after the Panthers loss, Konecny still gets out there for overtime even after the bad interference penalty. But not 36 hours after he already told the team to stop being a bunch of dumbasses.