It is now.
Richards was called for a stunning five-minute penalty for elbowing Patrick Kaleta at the end of the second period. It was a bang-bang play. Richards was pinned along the boards near the Flyers' bench and Kaleta was coming toward him. Richards wheeled with his elbow up, hit Kaleta in the head, and dropped the scrappy forward to the ice.
Richards was furious at the call, smashing his stick on the doorway as he left the ice for the locker room. But it was his perception that the Sabres were having their way physically that led to the penalty.
"I saw him take a couple of hard strides at me," Richards said. "I had to protect myself. They're not going to call anything, so I had to protect myself."
Like the NFL, the NHL is doing its best to legislate head shots out of the sport. There have been a couple of suspensions already in these playoffs. But those have come from high-speed collisions where one player clearly targets another from the blind side.
You never know with the NHL. One man, Colin Campbell, metes out justice with little apparent logic. But a five-minute penalty, given the circumstances, was probably more than enough penalty for this infraction. Depriving the Flyers of their captain for a game would be overkill.
That said, the Sabres have gotten the better of the physical play in this series. With no Chris Pronger and no Jody Shelley, the Flyers are missing a couple of the intimidating players who might discourage some of that physicality.
"They're hard on the right guys," Carcillo said. "They haven't said boo to some of the other guys who they know will fight back. That's the way they play. That's the way they've always played. So we'll see what happens in [Game] 5."
