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Geraldine Tkachuk, the players’ grandmother, was spotted in the stands looking less than impressed.
As remarkable as the 10-man ejection may have been, it barely seemed to faze the participants.
“I mean, I don’t think it’s bad to play with emotion,” Brady Tkachuk told The Associated Press. “I think when this group plays with emotion, we’re a tough team to beat, and I think we rely on our emotion and it shows that we care, shows that we care about what we’re doing here and about the guy next to us.”
Two more players got misconduct penalties later in the third period, bringing the total penalty minutes in the game to 167.
Still, this being hockey, that wasn’t close to a record. In 2004, a series of brawls late in a game between the Senators and the Philadelphia Flyers led to 419 penalty minutes. Sixteen players were ejected from that game, but never more than seven at once.
“It’s just a hockey game,” Maurice said dismissively to reporters on Monday. “Both teams want to win, and you get a little snarly. It was fun, it was good.”
Asked where the game ranked in his career for physicality, Maurice said: “That’s mild. We only got to 160-some minutes. It’s got to get into the 250s before it gets too squirrelly.”
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