Oh this is getting good now.....
As if it wasn't officially a series already, Lightning-Flyers is really on now. The Bolts fell to the Flyers Monday night 6-2, but how his team played isn't what head coach John Tortorella was talking about at Wednesday's morning practice.
Torts called Philadelphia head coach Ken Hitchcock "gutless" and twice advised him to "shut his yap" in a heated response to what happened during Monday's game -- Hitchcock's talking to the Lightning players during the course of the contest. Apparently, the specific incident was Hitchcock's telling Brad Lukowich that he was going to send Donald Brashear after the Lightning. Tortorella's comments came after the team's practice at Brandon Ice Sports Forum before Tampa Bay jumped an afternoon flight to Philly for Thursday's Game 3.
"I don't see him on the ice. He's back there in a suit, the same type I wear. He's not in the battle," said Tortorella. "It's wrong, and it's not for the series. Philly does it all the time. They like to hear themselves talk about this, that, and the other thing. That's not going to effect us, but when it comes to a coach to a player, that's just so disrespectful.... I've never talked to a player on the ice. I never will. I'm not in the battle. He isn't in the battle. Shut your yap!"
"That's got to stop. Park your ego. Shove it in your pocket," he continued. And the topper? Most likely it was when Tortorella said, and without hesitation we might add, that Hitchcock's methods were "disrespectful, wrong.... it's gutless.... chicken (spit)."
His rancor was not reserved for Hitchcock either. "We knew going into this series (Flyers GM)Bobby Clarke was going to be working as hard as he can behind the scenes as far as whining about this, that, the other thing."
Clarke's response was to call Tortorella a "pathetic little man looking to get some publicity for himself."
Later Wednesday when the Bolts arrived in the City of Brotherly Love and Hitchcock was informed of the words, his response was "Tell him to mind his own business."
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