Blackhawks Won't be Bullied on Broad Street

The Broad Street Bullies, led by Dave "The Hammer" Schultz, defined the toughness of the Philly streets.

Blackhawks of the '70s, like Keith Magnuson, were behind many of Hammer's blows. And while Joel Quenneville didn't come into the league until later that decade, the reputation at The Spectrum remained.

"There were a lot of nights where there were long nights. When I say long nights there could've been 5 on 5s or bench clearing brawls. But that's a thing of the past," he said.

Hockey players don't fight like that anymore, especially in the Stanley Cup Finals. Still many found it refreshing to see Flyers instigator Danny Carcillo and Chris Pronger poking and prodding the Blackhawks in Game 2 in Chicago.

Adam Burish of the Blackhawks wonders if its really all that effective and doesn't hurt the Flyers more than fire them up.

"When he's (Carcillo) checking and doing his thing he can be sort of effective and sometimes when he's up to his sideshow act, to me it can be detrimental sometimes," said Burish.

Many of the Blackhawk players laughed at Chris Pronger picking up the game puck after the first two Blackhawk wins. Traditionally that puck goes to an outstanding player in the winner's dressing room.

"We saw him do it the first game and we were like, 'What's Pronger doing?' said right winger Patrick Kane.

Ben Eager raced over to try and beat Pronger to the puck after Game 2, but failed.

"He was picking up pucks after the game, I told him he can keep it," he said.

Leave it to Burish to try to get the last mental edge in this mental game.

"I don't know what he wants with the pucks. I might autograph a puck and send him an extra one. I don't know why he's collecting them," said Burish.

Maybe because he doesn't think he's going to get one? Maybe he feels the momentum shift Chicago's way?

"You got to commend Prongs for finding ways to get around it or pushing the envelope as far as one can push it. he's a smart player," said Quenneville.

But are the mind games working?

The Broad Street Bullies earned their nickname after beating the 1975 Soviet Red Army team and forcing the Russians to walk off the ice. The 2010 Flyers of Broad street will have to come back from an 0-2 deficit and beat the Blackhawks to earn the same respect.

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