Flyers Daniel Carcillo Suspended, Coach Fined

The Philadelphia Flyers' Head Coach, John Stevens was fined $10,000 and Daniel Carcillo was suspended for one game for his apparent butt end to the head of Pittsburgh's Max Talbot with seven seconds remaining in the first game of their quarter-final series. The Penguins were up 4-1 at this point and the Flyers were in the middle of a stream of penalties taken in an effort to "send a message", as the parlance goes, to the Pittsburgh Penguins that the Philadelphia Flyers weren't about to roll over and "just you wait til the next game" verbiage was thrown out by the Flyers. That was their error. The league had stated that they were not going to allow this stuff.

Before the playoffs even started, Colin Campbell, the NHL Senior VP of Hockey Operations told the General Managers and coaches of those teams bound for the playoffs that the league will not tolerate messages being sent when the game was already decided. Campbell was quoted as saying "Organizations – players and coaches – will be held accountable for such actions." And the Flyers are being held to that.

In the last 4 minutes of Game One, with the score 4-1 in favor of the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Flyers started hitting anyone in a Penguins jersey, Jordan Stall was cross-checked from behind into the boards, and another Flyer delivered a two-handed slash to the legs of another Penguin. The Flyers were given 7 penalties (23 total penalty minutes) in the last 4 minutes of the game when it became obvious that it was over. Anyone who is a fan of playoff hockey knew what the Flyers were trying to do -- that even though the Pens would win this game, they should expect more of this in the next game.

On the play in question, Carcillo was on the ice taking a faceoff against Talbot and clipped Talbot ("Just a follow though as I passed the puck" claims Carcillo) in the back of the head of the helmeted Talbot who slumped to the ice in obvious pain. Talbot wasn't injured and will play in the second game of the best-of-seven series.

Carcillo received no penalty on the play, but it was reviewed by the league who decided that the Flyers coach, John Stevens, should be fined $10,000 for putting Carcillo and others on the ice with 7 seconds left knowing what message he wanted delivered. The Flyers were outworked and outplayed for most of the game, and as the time ticked away, it became apparent that the Flyers were not going to muster enough offence to make a game of it, so the Flyers started taking several cheap shots at several of the Penguins players. Carcillo will miss game 2 of the series as the Flyers try to improve on their lackluster effort in the first game.