Philadelphia Flyers forward Danny Briere will participate in a conference call hearing with NHL disciplinarians this morning after an altercation over the weekend.
The Flyers on Saturday played host to the New York Islanders. As any good host knows, a 6 – 1 landslide victory for the Flyers usually leaves your guests a little grumpy. The two teams combined for 120 penalty minutes; some normal, some fighting, and some were a few game misconducts.
With 1 minute left to play on the clock, a face-off in the Islanders zone, Danny Briere cross checked Islander’s center Frans Nielson after the puck drop. Sure these things happen, however the cross check was to the head. Below is the video.
The NHL will review the play and have a nice little chat with Briere this morning. Expect a fine for sure, and possibly a 3 game suspension. Briere may have helped last week in the penalty column for fantasy teams, this week though he’ll most likely be out of action.
I don’t think Briere was right by doing this but Nielsen asked for this. I have looked at other videos of this particular incident and you see that Nielsen fells down and he didn’t get any attention he got right back up skating to Briere so just that says he was looking for attention. I personally feel the referee should have switch the Islanders after the face off as you could have seen the situation developed after that bad mouthing, if the referee done that I think it would have just went into a fight, instead of the cross check! But don’t get me wrong I am not coming up for Briere, but like I said Nielsen asked for it!
Riaan,
You bring up a good point that the ref should have been proactive instead of reactive to the situation. That could have avoided the cross check to the head. As for Nielsen asking for it, part of hockey is getting under someone’s skin and drawing a penalty. Drawing a penalty is one thing, but Briere never should have brought his stick up so high. Nielsen never asked for that. If Briere was taking so unkindly to Nielsen, drop the gloves.
Thanks for posting your response Riaan.
EB