NHL official release:

Philadelphia Flyers head coach John Tortorella has been suspended for two games and fined $50,000 for unprofessional conduct directed at the officials by refusing to leave the bench area after being assessed a game misconduct at 10:49 of the first period of NHL Game No. 1,016 on Saturday, March 9, NHL Senior Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell announced today.

Tortorella will miss the Flyers’ next two games — March 12 versus the Sharks and March 14 versus the Maple Leafs.

The fine money goes to the NHL Foundation.

How many games for Wes McAuley? Any fine money for him? Any accountability or responsibility on his end? Didn’t think so!

Dan Hilferty said earlier that he’d pay any incoming fine for Torts. $50k for Comcast is like you and I buying Burger King chicken fries. When he cuts the check to the league, he should add a note saying “it’s a new era of orange, motherfuckers.” Something along those lines. Let them know what’s up.

Torts will miss the San Jose and Toronto games. You shouldn’t need any coach at all to beat the woeful Sharks at home, but it gets TOUGH after that, so we’ll see if this has some sort of galvanizing effect on the Flyers. Maybe it has no effect. That’s what’s most curious in this situation – does Torts’ absence from behind the bench have any sort of tangible effect at all? Or do the Flyers shake off the Tampa Bay blowout and collect themselves? Does Sean Couturier ever find the back of the net again? These are the questions we want answers to.