A day after lashing out at Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby and head coach Dan Bylsma on a Philadelphia radio station, NHL analyst Mike Milbury has issued an apology.
"I reached out to David Morehouse and the Penguins about the comments I made yesterday on Philadelphia radio." Milbury said in a statement. "In hindsight, I realize what I said was inappropriate and wrong, and I want to apologize to the Penguins organization and their fans."
Penguins' general manager Ray Shero was angry about Milbury's comments.
"If it was an attempt at comedy, it falls real short," Shero told TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun on ESPN.com on Tuesday. "It's fine to have an opinion on players but when you're making light of concussions, that's not right...
"There's nothing funny about [former Flyers captain] Keith Primeau having to retire from it. This is an issue that is at the forefront of our league right now and to make light of these concussions is a real lame attempt at humor. He should know better than this."
On Monday, Milbury was on Sports Radio 94WIP and discussed Sunday's game between the Penguins and Flyers that ended with a line brawl after a cross check to Crosby and a hit on Danny Briere earlier in the game.
Milbury told the station that Bylsma "should have taken off his skirt" and done more to confront Flyers head coach Peter Laviolette.
Milbury also spoke out about the actions of Crosby during the game.
"Crosby gets cross-checked, big whoop," Milbury told Sports Radio 94WIP. "He said after he came back from his 35th concussion, 'I'm not going to do this anymore, I'm not going to get into those scrums, I'm going to stay away from that stuff' but he couldn't help himself because there is a little punk in Crosby. He's not the perfect gentleman, he's not that little sweet kid you see in all those interviews with his hat pulled down over his eyes. I say screw him, hit him."
The Penguins and Flyers will meet one more time in the final game of the season and could be headed towards a first round playoff matchup.
