If you missed the Flyers vs. Penguins game yesterday, then you missed quite possibly the best fight of the season…and it wasn’t between the players. I unfortunately was stuck in my vehicle for 5 hours and had to listen to it all unfold via the radio. Flyers head coach Peter Laviolette went ape $h!t and started screaming at the Penguins coaching staff, most specifically Dan Bylsma, who took the extremely lame and boring high road and let assistant coach Tony Granato do his dirty work. The fight was most likely sparked by a Joe Vitale hit on Danny Briere, which will keep the Flyers’ talented winger out of the lineup indefinitely.
Laviolette, as per usual, wasn’t afraid to express his distaste for Bylsma’s selection of players to put out on the ice in the remaining minutes of the Penguins’ 6-4 loss. One would think the 4th line wouldn’t be seeing much ice time in such crucial moments, unless it was for the purpose of instigating a brawl, which is exactly what it did. Laviolette thought Bylsma was playing dirty (a fair assumption in my opinion) and proceeded to lose his mind over it. He was fined $10,000 by the league today. Granato was fined only $2,500.
How much do you wish you were “Inside the Glass” with Pierre McGuire in the middle of this argument? It’s really too bad he had to mute the mic. This playoff match-up will be BRILLIANT!
Here’s the fight if you missed it:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTJ90Jo37sE&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
About Katey Berman