But of course; Flyers SBN blogger didn't think Richards hit warranted a suspension

They don't call the Flyers the Broad Street Bullies for nothing. I find this blog post and the comments to be remotely entertaining, I thought I would share them with you... The sad part is that Karma has a way of evening things out. Eventually Mike Richards is going be on the receiving end of one of these hits... It will be interesting to see if the Flyers fans will say the same things they are now. There was no malicious intent, players shouldn't have put himself in that position, blah, blah, blah.

Broad Street Hockey ---- I base my opinion off of a few things. For starters, I don't believe there's any malicious intent from Richards, and it does sound horrible and you feel bad saying it, but there's definitely some onus on Connolly to not put himself in that kind of position. The rulebook even says that.

But for the most part, I think the lack of suspension is the right call based solely on the precedent we've seen in these playoffs so far. Jarret Stoll sat one game for direct contact to the head of Ian White, as did Chris Kunitz for his elbow to the head of Simon Gagne. Those are much more egregious hits than Richards', considering the whole contact-to-the-head factor.

Richards isn't innocent in the slightest bit, and honestly, I'd be surprised if this wasn't a suspension in the regular season. Now, though, this isn't suspension worthy in the playoffs, as the NHL has held a pretty strong line on not enforcing this hit-from-behind stuff. That should change, but for now, the Flyers have their captain in Game 7.

Pronger responds to Burish...

Wouldn't you love to see about a four games series between these two team next season? I think it would be a lot of fun. Seriously! This on going drama making for some great theater. In today's sports world we need rivalries and villains. I think to Chicago Blackhawks fans Pronger is a villain.

"He had his chance during the series, didn't he" Pronger said. "Why is he worrying about me instead of celebrating winning the Cup? Boy, it just goes to show how much I was in his kitchen for him to be talking about me five minutes after he wins the Cup."

Burish, 27, played a minor role in helping the Blackhawks win the Cup. In the 15 games he dressed - he was a healthy scratch in seven - he managed one assist playing an average 5:34 per game and was minus-1. Pronger, meanwhile, was his team's best player and led all defencemen in playoff scoring with four goals and 18 points in 23 games. Despite the fact he was minus-5 in Game 4 of the final, Pronger finished plus-5 in the playoffs.

Still, he was a very controversial figure, because he picked up the game pucks in Games 1 and 2 of the final in Chicago.

"Who cares if I take the game puck?" Pronger said. "The media blew that way out of proportion."

Pronger won over many members of the media during the final with his sarcasm and humour during Q&A sessions. As for Burish, well let's just say there won't be too many people who look back at the Blackhawks championship season and think they wouldn't have done it without him.

When told about Burish's comments, Pronger said: "I could care less what somebody on another team says about me. I don't play this game to make friends. I play to win." [Sports Net.CA]

More on the Daniel Carcillo and Marian Gaborik fight.

I have this game taped on my DVR so I am going to go back and watch this game later on this weekend because it sounds like I missed a good ole fashion donnybrook game. I just caught the highlights from last night's game while watching another game on the tube. Now if you miss a game on NHL Center Ice you will get a second chance to DVR said game after the game is over. Thank You!

Incidents like this is why I hate/loathe the Philadelphia Flyers, the Broad Street Bullies are a bunch of blood thirsty ruffians skating around the ice taking liberties with the opposition team. The two biggest hacks are Scott Hartnell aka “mop head” and Daniel Carcillo. First off Hartnell is you’re going to be a fighter; be a tough guy and take off the shield. Also, get a hair cut you look like a poor mans version of a French poodle. Second Carcillo knew what exactly what he was doing, he know that there wasn’t any tough guys on the ice and he went over and grabbed Gabby, and was looking for an excuse to pummel their top scorer. Here is what Carcillo had to say, "I wasn't expecting him to drop his gloves when he did," Carcillo admitted. "I was pretty much licking my chops."

If you watched the fight (if you want to call that a fight) you will see that Gabby dropped the gloves, but I think it was more out of self preservation. I am sure Gabby saw the the one sided exchange between Carcillo and Bradley and didn’t want to have the same thing happen to him. After the Bradley incident, who knows if Carcillo wouldn’t have just hit Gabby whether he would have dropped the gloves or not. Carcilo’s actions last night might pretty much prove that league top players better beware and are notice because its open season on you if you are playing the Flyers.

PHILADELPHIA -- John Tortorella's sense of honor, an amorphous concept to begin with, was offended last night when Flyers' thug Daniel Carcillo dropped his gloves to throw punches at the Rangers' elegant pacifist, Marian Gaborik, at 5:43 of the second period of the Flyers' 2-0 victory.

Perhaps the head coach should have directed his ire at Dan Girardi and the rest of the Blueshirts on the ice at the time who were bystanders (though hardly innocent ones) to the bout during which their best player was in jeopardy.

Or maybe Tortorella already had done so, because Girardi, who watched from just a few feet away as the unfair fight unfolded in the Rangers' attacking left corner and circle, told The Post that he regretted his decision not to engage on behalf of his teammate.

"I guess I was overthinking it, Girardi said. "I didn't want to take another penalty, because I knew we already had one there [on Brandon Dubinsky], but I should have gotten involved. I should have jumped in. Maybe it was the wrong decision, but it was the decision I made at the time.

"If there's a next time, I would go."

Tortorella, who told the press he already had addressed that issue with the team behind closed doors, did not take kindly to Carcillo's actions.

"There is no honor in that," Tortorella said when asked what he felt about Carcillo, who has 58 career fights in 194 NHL career, going after Gaborik, who had fought once previously in 551 career matches, against Ian Laperriere, then of the Avalanche, on Apr. 6, 2008.

Tortorella expressed further exasperation when told that Carcillo had said something about how he had been licking his chops to get a shot at Gaborik, talked more about honor, how it was embarrassing and all that.
[Read the rest of the story here]