You Can’t Take the Bully Out of Broad Street
Former Flyers player/GM and current senior executive vice president Bobby Clarke still lives by a code. Talk to anybody who played against those broken-knuckled Flyers teams of the ’70s and you’ll find out that, regardless of his seeming Golden Boy persona, the guy was a menace on the ice. So it shouldn’t be a surprise when Clarkie lobs a sound bite sticking up for the freewheeling thuggishness of young Steve Downie, who recently made national hockey news once again thanks to his supposed sucker-punch to Toronto Maple Leaf Jason Blake last Saturday night.
The Inquirer’s Don McKee reported that Clarke told the creatively named “Sports Network of Canada” he “loved” the eye-whack Downie gave to Blake. In fact, Clarke said, the seasoned vet, who’s battling a rare form of leukemia, actually deserved it because of the way he criticized Downie’s rough play early in the season:
“Blake was a guy who had no problem going out and saying he should be suspended for life or suspended for the year.When you say something that stupid, why shouldn’t this kid go after him for it? The kid did what every hockey player should do. If a player like Blake, who’s been around as long as he has, wants to criticize a player, then he has to go on the ice with him and suffer the consequences.”
Give it some time: Steve Downie will become one of the most popular players in Flyers history — if the NHL doesn’t suspend him for life before the end of this season, of course.
Clarke drops the gloves [Inquirer]
PHOTO: Phillypena.com
