NHL Wagging Finger At Taunting In Stanley Cup
BOSTON (CBS) - The biting has calmed down in the Stanley Cup Finals, but the finger-pointing between the Bruins and Canucks is still going on.
And the NHL has taken notice.
"We will deal with the issues of the series, the chippyness that's going on," Mike Murphy, NHL Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations, on Tuesday.
It started after Alex Burrows bit Patrice Bergeron during a scrum in Game 1. After the Bruins lost Game 2 in overtime, Maxim Lapierre stuck his fingers in front of Bergeron's face, in what Bruins coach Claude Julien said was the Canucks making a "mockery" of the NHL's decision not to suspend Burrows for his bite.
In Game 3, it was the Bruins turn to waive their fingers. Mark Recchi returned the favor to Lapierre during a stoppage in play as things were getting chippy between the two teams. After Milan Lucic and Burrows tussled in the third period, Lucic pulled the finger move as well.
The NHL has seen enough.
"We've addressed it," said Murphy on Tuesday. "We've addressed it with the teams as early as this morning. I will be speaking with both general managers and coaches before the day's over about the crap we are seeing, the garbage that is going on, some of the issues."
ESPN.com's Peter LeBrun was told by Murphy any player that wags their fingers in a scrum will receive a two-minute penalty and a 10-minute game misconduct.
Cam Neely told 98.5 The Sports Hub's Felger and Massarotti the NHL had spoken with Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli about the actions on Tuesday, and they would not tolerate it anymore.
"It was basically.... the nonsense after the whistles, all the finger stuff," Neely said of the NHL's talk with Chiarelli. "That was basically it. 'We're going to crack down on that type of behavior.'"
Julien made a point to tell his team he also did not want to see anymore nonsense after Game 3.
"They've been told that I don't want any of that stuff," Julien said after the game.
Read: Julien Won't Accept Taunting From Bruins
"It's something that this team isn't about," Lucic said of his actions. "It's something that I'm not about. It's definitely a classless move. Claude talked about it, he definitely game me some heat after the game. You regret doing it, but heat of the moment type of things, things like that will happen."
98.5 The Sports Hub is the only local station to listen to every game of the Stanley Cup Finals. Coverage begins an hour before each game with the Bruins Pregame show hosted by Dave Goucher & Bob Beers.
