With the Flyers sitting on a comfortable 5-1 lead with 3:33 to play in Thursday's game against the Sabres, Radko Gudas laid a hit on an unsuspecting Daniel Catenacci. Jake McCabe came to the defense of Catenacci, getting in a fight with Gudas.
It was Gudas' second fight of the game. He also fought Marcus Foligno, who took exception to a low hit in the second period right before Michael Raffl scored to make it a 4-0 game.
Gudas will not face supplemental discipline for the hit on Catenacci in the third, but that will not please the Buffalo Sabres, who believed Gudas deserved something further from the league.
"I don’t want to talk about that guy. That guy's an idiot and stupid," Foligno said. "He gets his hits in, he’s dirty and he’s been known for it. He goes after a rookie who plays in three games and goes right at his head. He’s an idiot, that guy, that’s all I can say. I wish that me and Deslauriers were out on the ice at that time and we could’ve done a little worse damage to him."
"I think there’s no question it’s a head hit," Sabres head coach Dan Bylsma said. "It’s also a guy who had two other guys on him and he stepped up into him clearly. I don’t think there’s too much question about it. The refs took care of it on the ice, as did Jake McCabe.
"I know the league will look at that hit and deal with it."
Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol was not pleased with the timing of the hit, but believed its violent nature had more to do with an already-falling Catenacci and less with Gudas' impact.
"It looked to me like he was down low from what I saw on the ice," Hakstol said. "So that’s all I can comment on.
"We want to do all the right things to close out a game in the third period, and we ended up spending another three minutes in that case killing penalties. So that’s not a position we want to be in."
Video of the incident and fight between Gudas and McCabe following the hit is below.
The Flyers return to the ice on Saturday afternoon to face the New Jersey Devils. Game time is set for 1 p.m.
Kevin Durso is managing editor for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.
