Philadelphia forward Jesse Boulerice was suspended 25 games by the NHL on Friday for cross-checking Vancouver's Ryan Kesler across the face, matching the largest suspension in league history.
"I expected the worst," Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren said. "Is 25 the worst? It's pretty close to what I expected."
Holmgren announced the suspension -- handed down by NHL disciplinarian Colin Campbell after Friday's hearing in Toronto -- at the Flyers practice facility.
PHOTO: AP
This is not the first time that Boulerice has been suspended for violent conduct. In 1998, he was suspended for one year by the Ontario Hockey League after a violent stick-swinging incident -- but moved to the AHL the following season and was ruled ineligible only until mid-November.
Boulerice is the second Flyer to be hit with long suspension in three weeks after rookie Steve Downie was suspended 20 games for a hit against Ottawa.
Islanders forward Chris Simon was suspended for 25 games in March for his two-handed stick attack to the face of Ryan Hollweg of the New York Rangers.
"I think we're in agreement that there's no place in the game for this anymore," Holmgren said. "I do think it was an isolated incident. Jesse lost his composure, lost his cool. It's something that's not the right thing to do, at any time."
Boulerice's vicious hit came late in Philadelphia's 8-2 win over Vancouver on Wednesday. After some pushing and shoving, Boulerice caught an unsuspecting Kesler across the face with his stick, leaving the Canucks forward lying motionless on the ice.
He eventually got up and skated to the bench on his own.
"We're by no means condoning what happened," Flyers coach John Stevens said after practice. "He's going to have to stand up and pay the price."
Downie was suspended 20 games by the NHL last month for leaving his feet to deliver a deliberate and dangerous hit to the head of Ottawa's Dean McAmmond. Holmgren said Downie has served two games of the suspension.
The Flyers, once known as the Broad Street Bullies, have quickly established an unwanted identity as a team full of out-of-control goons.
"It's almost implied that's the direction we're going when it couldn't be further from the truth," Stevens said.
Boulerice received a match penalty for intent to injure and Kesler called for a 20-game suspension. The 23-year-old center practiced on Thursday and expected to play on Friday when the Canucks faced the Oilers in Edmonton. The swelling in Kesler's right lip and jaw had subsided, but he still had some red marks on his face.
Boulerice said after the game he was sorry for the hit.
"I reacted in a bad way, the wrong way," he said.
In the OHL incident, Boulerice was charged with assault to do great bodily harm less than murder.
He pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of aggravated assault.
"Whatever happened in Jesse's head triggered something," Flyers forward Mike Knuble said of the latest suspension. "For the most part, players don't want to see players going after each other with sticks in the face. That's not the game we're trying to promote."
The Flyers (2-1) play their home opener against the New York Islanders today.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier