Joe Sacco Responds To John Tortorella’s Rant After Bruins Topped Flyers

Flyers coach John Tortorella ripped the refs — and the Bruins — after Philadelphia squandered a two-goal lead and fell to Boston in overtime on Saturday.

After Pavel Zacha potted the game-winner from David Pastrnak, Tortorella didn’t allow reporters to ask any questions and just began his rant.

“Let me start. One thing I teach my team to do is not dive,” Tortorella said, per team-provided video. “Maybe I should start teaching them that. The way this has gone here, the way this (expletive) goes on, maybe I should teach them to dive.”

The Flyers were called for eight penalties in the game, while the Bruins were whistled for four. Philadelphia went 1-for-2 on the man advantage. The Bruins went 1-for-6, and Tortorella obviously thought the Bruins were favored by the calls.

“I’m not gonna go too deep into it,” he continued. “It’s one of the things we talk about most as a team, we gotta play an honest game. There’s no cheating. There’s no embarrassing referees. You don’t embarrass the referees. The (expletive) that went on here tonight is just ridiculous.

“… I’m proud of the way our team played. Did we (expletive) another one away? Yeah, but other people had a little bit to do with that also.”

Bruins interim head coach Joe Sacco dismissed the claim when he spoke with reporters after practice on Monday.

“That’s not our group. That’s not our team, and that’s not how we play,” Sacco said, per team-provided video. “That’s how I respond to that. That’s not what we’re about.”