Late in the third period of the Penguins 5-2 win over the New York Rangers on Thursday night, Pittsburgh defenseman Brooks Orpik was given a five-minute major and a game misconduct for kneeing Derek Stepan, a play that you can take a look at right here.
That's certainly going to get a look from the NHL.
After the game the Rangers were not happy, including head coach John Tortorella, as he provided one of his most animated blowups of the season, calling the Penguins the most arrogant team in the league, and then directing his anger at Pittsburgh's two superstars, Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby.
"It's a cheap, dirty hit," said Tortorella. "I wonder what would happen if we did it to their two whining stars over there? I wonder what would happen? So I'm anxious to see what happens with the league with this. Just no respect amongst players. None. It's sickening."
When asked why that seems to be the case, Tortorella went off again.
"Ask the guy who did it. Ask him. It's one of the most arrogant organizations in the league. They whine about this stuff all the time, and look what happens. It's ridiculous. But they'll whine about something else over there, won't they? Starting with their two [expletive] stars."
And at that point, the press conference was over.
Rangers goalie Martin Biron called the hit "gutless," which makes it the second time in less than a week that a member of the Penguins has been referred to as "gutless" in some context, following Peter Laviollete's disappointment at the end of Sunday's game against the Flyers.
Can you tell that we're getting close to the playoffs?
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