Flyers

Rangers Win Winter Classic 3-2, John Tortorella Posits Conspiracy Theory

By Kyle Scott

Published: Jan 2nd, 2012 · 8:13 PM EST

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Unbelievable event. Tough loss, typical Flyers goaltender second-guessing, but still an unbelievable event. I managed to score a last-minute ticket (literally… 2 p.m.) and am still working on regaining feeling in my fingers, so we’ll have more later and tomorrow. For now, though, here’s John Tortorella raising his conspiracy theory about calls in the third period: [portions of quote via Puck Daddy]

"Well, I'm not sure if NBC got together with the refs to determine if it was an overtime game. It started with when Gabby gets pitch-forked in the stomach, and then everything starts going against us. They're two good referees. I thought the game was refereed horribly. So I'm not sure what happened there. Maybe they wanted to get it to an overtime. I'm not sure if they have meetings about that or what. But we stood in there. We stood in there. And again, I don’t want… because they're good guys. But in that third period, it was disgusting."

 

He’s right. Kimmo Timonen nearly mugged Ryan Callahan, and somehow both guys got a penalty. But Danny Briere's penalty shot was deserved… even if it did take 30 seconds for the officials to compute the time and place, and decide that "TV would like this"…

… I'm joking! Mostly.

Rangers GM Glen Sather had his panties in a bunch, too. He told reporters the following:

"You see three or four calls that are enough to blow your mind."

 

Oh shut up.

Video of Briere’s penalty shot and Tortorella's press conference is after the jump. Conspiracy theory starts at 8:50 mark.