The bad blood between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers just keeps spilling over.
Flyers assistant coach Craig Berube threw his two cents into the war of words on CSN Philly's Daily News Live Tuesday, calling Penguins stars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, "the two dirtiest players on their hockey team."
"They slash, they punch guys in the face they do all these little things," said Berube. "I got no problem with what Schenn does, and if somebody runs [Crosby] over, that's great, they should run him over. This guy gets away with too much in my opinion, whines to the refs all day and all night, it's a joke."
Berube's comments are just the latest in a heated set of exchanges between the two teams that began during the Flyers 6-4 win over the Penguins on Sunday.
The game ended with a line brawl and 52 minutes in penalties being shared between the two teams from just that incident.
One of the factors that touched off the fighting was a cross-check to Penguins forward Sidney Crosby's back by Flyers forward Brayden Schenn that was followed by a hit on Danny Briere by Joe Vitale.
On Monday, NHL analyst Mike Milbury lashed out at Crosby and Penguins head coach Dan Bylsma on Philadelphia 's Sports Radio 94WIP.
Milbury said 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 said. "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."
Milbury's comments prompted an angry response from Penguins' general manager Ray Shero.
"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."
Milbury then apologized for his comments.
"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."
The Penguins and Flyers will meet one more time in the final game of the season and also look to be headed towards a first round playoff matchup.
