Tortorella Tossed as Lightning Light Up Flyers

As the Flyers took the ice for warmups, it was already shaping up to be an eventful night. Egor Zamula was out with illness, leaving the Flyers with just five healthy defensemen. In the first 10:49 of the game, the Lightning scored four goals, two on the power play, and the Flyers bench boss had been tossed from the game.

It all resulted in a 7-0 drubbing to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night.

It was an eventful first period for the Flyers in all of the wrong ways. The Lightning started off the scoring just 1:49 in with a goal by Victor Hedman through a screen.

At 5:55, the Lightning capitalized on a power play as Nick Paul was able to put home a rebound to make it 2-0. Following the second goal, Nick Deslauriers tried to spark some life into the Flyers by dropping the gloves with Austin Watson.

After a failed clear, the Lightning made it 3-0 at 9:10 as Conor Sheary took a shot that leaked through Sam Ersson. Seconds later, a tripping penalty on Ronnie Attard gave the Lightning another power play.

Less than a minute later, Garnet Hathaway was given a 10-minute misconduct after shoving down Anthony Cirelli following a whistle.

At 10:49, the Lightning made it 4-0 with Brayden Point getting a power-play goal. That ended Ersson's night after facing 15 shots and allowing four goals. Before the ensuing face-off, head coach John Tortorella was tossed from the game by Wes McCauley, putting the Flyers shorthanded again.

Through 20 minutes, shots were 16-9 Tampa Bay.

Play leveled out for most of the second period, but the Flyers were unable to solve Andrei Vasilevskiy. At 15:42, Anthony Duclair scored seconds after Steven Stamkos was stopped by Felix Sandstrom to make it a 5-0 game.

Through two periods, shots were 20-19 Flyers.

Hedman added his second goal of the game at 7:33 of the third period. Brandon Hagel added another power play goal at 8:16 to make it 7-0.

Sandstrom made eight saves on 11 shots in relief. Vasilevskiy finished off a 25-save shutout win.

Darren Raddysh had five assists for the Lightning. Hedman had a three-point game. Stamkos and Point each had two-point games.

The Flyers get back on the ice on Tuesday night at home against the San Jose Sharks.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• TB Victor Hedman (11) (Nikita Kucherov, Darren Raddysh) 1:49
• TB Nick Paul (18) PP (Anthony Duclair, Raddysh) 5:55
• TB Conor Sheary (3) (Raddysh) 9:10
• TB Brayden Point (33) PP (Steven Stamkos, Hedman) 10:49

2nd Period

• TB Duclair (17) (Stamkos) 15:42

3rd Period

• TB Hedman (12) (Point, Raddysh) 7:33
• TB Brandon Hagel (23) PP (Raddysh, Michael Eyssimont) 8:16

Game Statistics

Kevin Durso is Flyers insider for 97.3 ESPN. Follow him on social media @Kevin_Durso.