The tension swirled even before the first puck was dropped and, as expected, it
took only two seconds into Saturday's Flames-Canucks game for total chaos to break out. After the puck fell, every player on the ice—but the goalies—paired up and threw punches.
This wasn't totally unpredictable, though, if you looked at the lineups. The Flames, being the visiting team, released their starting lineup first, which was actually their fourth line. Once the Canucks coach John Tortorella saw that Bob Hartley was putting enforcers on the ice, Torts then put his own expendables at the line.
Then the fun began.
Ten players were given majors for fighting and game misconducts. Adding in a two-minute penalty on Calgary's Kevin Westgarth for roughing, a total of 152 penalty minutes were recorded in those first two seconds. There was also one steaming Tortorella, who was leaning over the bench and yelling at Calgary's side as things got crazy.
Here's Torts below going berserk outside the Flames locker room in between periods. He jostled with Flames coaches and players until cooler heads prevailed.
Tortorella later apologized via Twitter.
