Flyers coach John Tortorella refuses to leave bench quickly after being ejected

Philadelphia Flyers coach John Tortorella was acknowledged on the bench before Saturday night's game as the Tampa Bay Lightning honored members of the 2004 Stanley Cup championship team.

But the former Lightning coach didn't even make it out of the first period as he was ejected with his team down 4-0. And he didn't leave easily.

Referee Wes McCauley gave Tortotella a bench minor and game misconduct with 9:11 left in the first period. It followed Brayden Point's power-play goal after a tripping call against Ronnie Attard. Tortorella had objected to that penalty, making a "dive" hand gesture. During that Lightning power play, Philadelphia's Garnet Hathaway got a misconduct for shoving Anthony Cirelli on a line change.

Cameras didn't catch what Tortorella did to get booted. But once he was, Tortorella didn't leave right away and continued arguing from the bench.

At one point, the cameras switched to the 2004 Lightning team members laughing as they watched the exchange on television.

Eventually, Tortorella did leave the bench after close to two minutes.

Tortorella didn't talk after the game, but associate coach Brad Shaw addressed the issue.

"I think he was just trying to make a point that we felt like we might not have been getting our fair shake," Shaw said. "It's an emotional game at times and we all get elevated blood pressure."

On the tripping penalty, Shaw said: "It just looked like two guys skating, hustling for a puck and their skates hit together and one fell down and one didn't. I wasn't very excited about it myself."

Tortorella is known for his intensity and fiery ways. As coach of the Vancouver Canucks in 2014, he was suspended for 15 days for attempting to go into the Calgary Flames' dressing room to object to a line brawl. He was fined $25,000 for leaving a Columbus Blue Jackets postgame news conference early during the 2020 playoffs and has been fined other times in his career.

In addition to the Stanley Cup win, Tortorella was coach of the year in 2003-04 and 2016-17. He has been mentioned as a candidate for winning the award again this season for his work with the Flyers.