As the Philadelphia Flyers attempted to make a comeback against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night, Tony DeAngelo’s recklessness played a role in preventing that from happening. After Andrei Vasilevskiy froze the puck and the players gathered around him, DeAngelo circled back and used his stick to spear Corey Perry in the groin. That came after Perry slashed down on the Flyers’ defenseman’s stick.
That caused the Lightning players to go after DeAngelo and ended up forcing out of the game. He was given a five minute major and a game misconduct. The Lightning would score during the power play, essentially putting the game out of reach.
When asked after the game about the incident, DeAngelo did admit that he was trying to hit Perry, but he didn’t intend it to be in his groin.
DeAngelo: "He tried to slash my stick out of my hands a second beforehand. He talks all game. I asked him to fight, he doesn't want to fight. He'll tell you he's asked me to fight for years. I don't say no.
— Charlie O'Connor (@charlieo_conn) March 8, 2023
"But wasn't trying to give him a shot (there). Replay prob looks worse."
Regardless of what happened before that, DeAngelo was reckless with his stick and cost the Flyers a chance at coming back. It’s not to say they would’ve ended up scoring two going in the final few minutes of the game. But his major penalty made it harder to do so.
And after a hearing on Wednesday, the NHL Department of Player Safety announced a two game suspension for DeAngelo. The decision to make this a suspension was due to the force of the spear and doing so on an unsuspecting player. DeAngelo did not engage with Perry before committing this act.
With no relevant history and having been given both a major penalty and game misconduct, it could be fair to say that is why the suspension is only two games. The league may have felt that in-game penalty was sufficient enough to keep the suspension itself low.
A two game suspension has DeAngelo missing the final two games of the Flyers road trip. Their next two games are against Carolina and Pittsburgh. He will be eligible to return when Philadelphia is back at home against Vegas on Tuesday.