Danny Briere suspended three games
The National Hockey League has decided to suspend Philadelphia Flyers centre Danny Briere for three games after he was involved in an altercation with New York Islanders centre Frans Nielsen.
Briere was suspended after he cross-checked Nielsen in the face in his team’s win over the Islanders. The Flyers were leading the game 6-1 when the game started to get heated. After a couple big hits the
Flyers had a draw to the right of Islander goaltender Rick DiPietro. Briere cross-checked Nielsen right off the draw, which caused DiPietro to leave his net and go after the centre, resulting in the two teams pairing off.
Briere was assessed a five-minute major for the cross-check and was then given a 10-minute misconduct. Briere made it clear that he was not happy with how the Islanders were dealing with the one-sided
contest.
“When you get embarrassed like that, there’s lots of frustration,” said Briere. “They didn’t like that and had to respond some way, somehow. They did it with their fists.”
But Briere told delcotimes.com he wasn't happy about the punishment.
"[I had thought] 'they’ll probably give me a game because of it'. I’m shocked that it was more than a game," said Briere.
The game was particularly rough as 120 minutes in penalties were doled out, 70 of which went to the Islanders.
Briere has been suspended twice before in his career, the first time was last season when he was barred for two games after an illegal hit and once before in 2006 when he was reprimanded for a high-sticking
incident.
The National Hockey League has been very serious with suspensions this season and the three-game ban handed to Briere is another example of the League taking action on questionable plays.
The Flyers will take on the Carolina Hurricanes, New York Rangers and the New York Islanders without Briere in the line-up over the next week.
In 11 games with the Flyers this season Briere has managed six goals and two assists.
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