Flyers' Pronger bucks puck etiquette in Cup finals
Chris Pronger has become a puck pickpocket.
Long one of the NHL's foremost agitators, the Flyers defenseman has bucked hockey etiquette by swiping the game puck at the end of each of Chicago's first two wins in the Stanley Cup final. Like a game ball awarded to the star of the football game, a championship game puck usually winds up somewhere in the winning team's souvenir case.
Well, unless Pronger is involved.
Pronger riled up the Blackhawks at the end of Game 2 when he used his stick to whip a stray rally towel in Ben Eager's face. Eager had skated over to yap at Pronger about his puck thievery.
While the Blackhawks brushed off talk Tuesday of tossed towels and pilfered pucks, the Flyers found it all in good fun.
"He seems to be disturbing a lot of people around him. And we're a team that disturbs a lot of people," Flyers center Danny Briere said. "I guess he fits right in."
The Flyers need a reason to smile — and a souvenir puck earned, not swiped. Trailing 2-0 to Chicago entering Game 3 of the Stanley Cup final on Wednesday, the Flyers spent their off day working on strategy to somehow beat the Blackhawks.
"We did not talk about who is going to steal the puck in Game 3. None of that," Flyers coach Peter Laviolette said.
