PHILADELPHIA - Maybe it’s an attempt to tick off the Chicago Blackhawks.
Maybe it’s an attempt to try and take some heat off his Philadelphia Flyers teammates, who find themselves down 2-0 in the best-of-seven Stanley Cup final.
Or maybe it’s just Chris Pronger being Chris Pronger.
Juvenile or genius?
With the Philadelphia Flyers defenceman, it’s hard to tell the difference.
Pronger’s post-game scooping of the game puck and the firing of a Blackhawks rally towel at Chicago forward Ben Eager became a big topic Tuesday as the scene moved from Chicago to Philly for Game 3 Wednesday night.
Pronger’s Philadelphia teammates seemed amused by the whole thing Wednesday, dismissing the incident which saw Pronger and Eager exchange words as Game 2 ended and receive misconducts. For the second game in a row, Pronger grabbed the puck off the ice when the game ended with the Flyers on the losing end.
The winning team usually likes to grab the puck for either for their goaltender or to mark their progress in the playoffs. The Pittsburgh Penguins, for example, have a rack in their dressing room with room for 16 pucks - representing how many wins needed to win the Stanley Cup - and put a puck from each win in the rack.
Denying the opponent the puck seems like a petty thing, but it pushes peoples’ buttons.
When asked if he was going to put the puck on eBay, Pronger told csnphilly.com:
“I don’t know. Apparently, it got (Eager) upset. So I guess it worked, didn’t it? It’s too bad. I guess little things amuse little minds.”
Pronger added that Eager spoke “gibberish,” and made no apologies for grabbing the puck.
“Why not? What’s wrong? It’s sitting there,” he said. “What else is gonna happen to it? It’s sitting there. Sure, why not. You got a problem with that?”
“If he wants to grab the puck, let him have the puck,” said Flyers captain Mike Richards. “You can tell him not to take it if you want.”
Flyers coach Peter Laviolette read about the incident Tuesday and wondered about how it even fit into the context of what happens next.
“What is it you’re going to do? The ’Hawks? What added incentive do they have now? They’re mad? They’re angry? It’s the playoffs. We’re going to show up. We’re going to compete like hell (Wednesday) night. I promise you that. I don’t know what else they’re going to do because we stole their puck. I think it’s funny, just like you guys are laughing now. I think it’s kind of comical. Prongs wants the puck, take it.
“We didn’t talk about it. We did not talk about who is going to steal the puck in Game 3. None of that.”
“If he wants it, he can have it,” said the ’Hawks Patrick Sharp. “We’re thinking about hockey between the whistles and during the 60 minutes. So if he wants it, he can go grab it.”
Pronger might be the most hated man in hockey and his scooping up of the game pucks are only going to reinforce that opinion among fans and opponents.
Moronic, childish, petulant...probably all of those things.
“He disturbs people. We’re a team that disturbs a lot of people,” said teammate Daniel Briere. “He fits right in.”
His team is losing and Pronger doesn’t like it.
As Eric “Otter” Stratton said in Animal House, when the Deltas were under assault from every direction: “I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part.”
Says Bluto: “And we’re just the guys to do it.”
Pronger’s that guy.
It's part of his charm.
