Flyers' Tony DeAngelo suspended two games for egregious spear

Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Tony DeAngelo was ejected from Tuesday’s 5-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning and was suspended for two games after spearing forward Corey Perry in the third period.

DeAngelo received a five-minute major for spearing and a game misconduct for the play. As you can see, the action prompted a violent reaction from multiple Lightning players.

After the game, both DeAngelo and Flyers head coach John Tortorella shared their thoughts on the incident.

Via The Athletic’s Charlie O’Connor, DeAngelo admitted that he wanted to give Perry a “shot” but didn’t necessarily intend it to be a spear below the belt.

"I was trying to give him a little shot. I wasn't looking for it to go there," he told reporters. "He tried to slash my stick out of my hands the second beforehand. He talks all game. So, asked him to fight. Doesn't want to fight."

Tortorella admitted he hadn’t seen enough replays to totally weigh in, but provided interesting comments anyway, as you can see in the thread below from O’Connor. On one hand, Torts amusingly said, “guys in the room said it was pretty obvious.” On the other, Torts tried to spin it a bit as wishing some of DeAngelo’s teammates would share some of his edge.

Judging by his past history, it’s not shocking that even DeAngelo’s teammates and coach might hesitate to give him the complete benefit of the doubt.

His Rangers days ended with a buyout and plenty of confusion regarding what exactly happened between DeAngelo and teammates such as K’Andre Miller, Chris Kreider, and Alexandar Georgiev. Before he was drafted (by the Lightning, actually), DeAngelo already raised red flags with ugly incidents dating back to his OHL days, and began his stay with the Flyers by denying that he’s racist.

DeAngelo also received a three-game suspension for “abuse of officials” back in 2017.