John Tortorella ejected, Samuel Ersson exits in the first as Flyers lose to the Tampa Bay Lightning 7-0

Philadelphia Flyers head coach John Tortorella and goaltender Samuel Ersson both exited the disaster-class game against the Tampa Bay Lightning early last night.

Saturday night at Amalie Arena was certainly one to forget. The Flyers lost to the Lightning 7-0 and rookie goalie Sam Ersson coughed up four goals in the first 11 minutes of the game.

Ersson was pulled from the game and John Tortorella, also exited early after getting into it with the officiating crew. Torts was tossed, receiving a game misconduct penalty after Brayden Point scored the Lightning’s fourth goal on a power play.

Torts was furious that Garnet Hathaway was handed a 10-minute misconduct for shoving Lightning center Anthony Cirelli after the whistle and he got his money worth before leaving the bench.

John Tortorella Ejected from Flyers-Lightning Game

Torts didn't want to leave the bench after being ejected. 😳 pic.twitter.com/VTt70Bho49
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 10, 2024

John Tortorella, Basically

Note: Forty-three penalty minutes were racked up against the Flyers. Garnet Hathaway had 20 of them, while Nicolas Deslauriers, Sean Couturier and Cam Atkinson dropped the gloves. [NBC Sports]

With the 7-0 loss, the Flyers went 1-2-0 against the Lightning (34-25-6) in their three-game regular-season series.

Last night is what I would have considered a “scheduled” loss to begin with. The Flyers were without four defensemen, bringing their total active to just five players. Zamula missed the game due to an illness while Nick Seeler, Jamie Drysdale and Rasmus Ristolainen on injured reserve.

Still, the Flyers (33-24-8) have been in third place since the end of January and entered Saturday with a 76.6 percent chance to make the playoffs but the road ahead to close out the regular season is pretty rough. After the Flyers play the 16-40-7 Sharks, they have 7-straight games against teams that are currently in playoff position.

Two vs. BOS
Two vs. TOR
One vs. FLA
One vs. NYR
One vs. CAR