Joe Vitale's hit on Danny Briere started the fracas between the Penguins and the Philadelphia Flyers earlier this week. Briere is currently injured as a result. In the video below, he admits Vitale's hit was clean, but says Vitale was trying to injure him:
Look, everybody knows that the line that they put on the ice, at the end of the game, with a minute left, when the game is out of hand, everybody knows what the intent was. Was it a bad hit? No. It was a clean hit. But obviously, he knew what he was doing, he was obviously trying to hurt me.
The Pens' fourth line, the one on the ice at the time, featured Vitale, Arron Asham, Deryk Engelland, Matt Niskanen, and Craig Adams.
Vitale denies intending to hurt Briere (in fact, he says he didn't even know Briere was the one he was hitting), and he has not faced disciplinary action from the NHL.
For video of the Penguins-Flyers brawl, click here.
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