NHL to Hold Brashear Hearing Monday

After watching his team drop the first two games of their opening round playoff series with the Rangers, Bruce Boudreau decided he needed to make a change. Out of the lineup came play-making center Michael Nylander, and in his place fell perennial enforcer Donald Brashear.

After those two games, it was clear that the Rangers had gained something of a physical edge over the surprised Capitals. And on Sunday in New York, Brashear showed exactly why Boudreau gave him another shot at postseason hockey, first picking a fight with Rangers enforcer Colton Orr during pre-game warmups and then crushing penalty-killer Blair Betts with a borderline hit that sent him to the locker room in the first period, never to return. Later reports today say that Betts suffered a broken orbital bone and is done for the rest of the playoffs.

Brashear will have to answer for both of those actions later today, when the league holds a hearing at 1:00 PM.



Given how the Rangers have kicked up such a ruckus in the press over how the team was treated unfairly as they dropped back-to-back games to the Capitals in Washington on Friday night and at Madison Square Garden on Sunday afternoon, it would hardly be a shock to see the league throw them a bone and suspend Brashear for a game, even if that would mean issuing supplementary discipline for a hit that didn't draw anything more drastic than a two-minute minor for roughing on Sunday afternoon.