Let's check in on Tony DeAngelo...
Tony DeAngelo just got dogpiled by every single player on the Lightning. pic.twitter.com/OUfvilkkfk
— Ryan Quigley (@ryanquigz) March 8, 2023
...no, yeah, that looks about right. DeAngelo, who puts the "offensive" in "offensive defenseman," is forever in a battle to see who he can make hate him more, his opponents or his teammates. Fighting his own goalie got him booted from the Rangers despite his obvious talent, and precisely no one was sad to see him go. That and his history of slurs made him something of a bargain for the Hurricanes last season, and he parlayed a solid 50-point year (with his accustomed turnstile defense) into a trade to and two-year deal with Philadelphia. His time in black and orange has mostly been subsumed into the Flyers' general shittiness, but it was only a matter of time before DeAngelo got to spend some quality face time with the Department of Player Safety.
So, let's back up to just before that Lightning pile-on above. Late in what would be a 5-2 loss, DeAngelo found himself—surprisingly—on the outside of a scrum around the Tampa net. He calmly surveyed the situation, skated over, and speared Corey Perry right in the balls.
Tony DeAngelo received a 5 minute major and game misconduct for spearing Corey Perry. pic.twitter.com/R45zFkSOoX
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) March 8, 2023
DeAngelo was ejected, but maintained afterward that he just missed his target and wasn't aiming for Perry's pair. “Replay probably looks a bit worse than it was meant to be,” he said. “But it is what it is. I took 30 punches on the ground, and when I get up, they don’t let me do what I got to do. So it’s whatever.”
Normally we'd expect to hear more from DeAngelo about this on social media but he's still off Twitter since huffily quitting in solidarity when Donald Trump was banned from the platform. Sad! He'll get to tell his side of things to DoPS today.
