The Pittsburgh Penguins can reasonably be called media darlings, but they’re far from angels. A questionable Brooks Orpik knee-to-knee hit on Derek Stepan during Pittsburgh’s 5-2 win has the New York Rangers fuming, with outspoken head coach John Tortorella leading the way.
Here’s a greatest hits collection of quotes via Steve Zipay:
“It’s one of the most arrogant organizations in the league. They whine about this stuff all the time and look what happens,” Tortorella said. “Imagine if it happened to one of their (bleepin) superstars.”
Jeez, Torts just never cuts to the core of a situation, does he? Always beating around the bush. A diplomat from birth.
Before we move on to the more specific “criticisms” of Orpik’s hit, you might want to judge it on your own. Check out video of that knee-to-knee below:
Torts didn’t just snipe at the Penguins’ “whining” superstars, referring to Orpik’s check as a “cheap, dirty hit” while going back to the widely held point that there’s “no respect among players.” Zipay reports that Martin Biron was far from effusive about Orpik, as well.
So the natural question is: should Orpik be suspended? If so, for how long?
As Jason and Mike discussed on TV yesterday, the Penguins are already going into the highly probable Philadelphia Flyers series with some targets on their stars’ backs. (Tonight’s win assures that the Penguins will have the fourth seed.) If Pittsburgh meets the Rangers later on, they might as well just keep the bulls-eyes attached.
Here are highlights from the game:
Check out this East update, including Pittsburgh clinching the fourth seed: