The end of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers turned ugly on Sunday as frustrated Flyers fans threw garbage on the ice as the Penguins eliminated their team.
Toward the end of Pittsburgh’s 8-5 win, some Philadelphia fans threw beer cans onto the ice, potentially endangering some of the players. Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford was quick to take the offending fans to task.
“There were frustrated fans,” Rutherford told Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “They decided to waste their money and throw some things on the ice that they had already spent money on. I guess some of them have more money than brains.
“Somebody could have gotten hurt. It doesn’t make a lot of sense. The game’s over at that point.”
Rutherford credited the Flyers with pushing the series to six, and made clear that it was the handful of fans he was singling out.
“I don’t know who they were aiming at,” Rutherford said. “You have players from their home team there. Somebody could have been hurt bad. It doesn’t make any sense.”
It’s fair to say that Flyers fans weren’t exactly on their best behavior during this series. Rutherford is right — it was pretty dumb on the part of the Flyers fans who participated.
