OTTAWA — If they don't learn their lesson now, if the Ducks don't take to heart their admission that they take too many needless penalties, they will look back in anger in a week or two from now as the Senators hoist the Stanley Cup.
It may already be perilously late for the Ducks in one sense, even though the Senators' rally for a 5-3 victory Saturday at Scotiabank Place merely halved the Ducks' series lead to two games to one.
It may be too late because Chris Pronger again blurred the line between aggression and stupidity when he dealt a vicious elbow to the head of Ottawa forward Dean McAmmond two minutes and three seconds into the third period, creating the possibility that he will be suspended for Game 4 on Monday.
Pronger wasn't penalized on the play, which briefly knocked McAmmond out and turned his legs into noodles as he was helped off the ice. McAmmond didn't return, but Senators Coach Bryan Murray said his player had come around after getting treated in the locker room.
"I was just stepping up to finish my check," Pronger said. "I don't know what happened after that."
At least he didn't try to blame physics, as he did after he struck Detroit forward Tomas Holmstrom in the head during Game 3 of the Western Conference finals.
The NHL takes a dim view on hits to the head, as evidenced by its decision to suspend Pronger for a game after the hit on Holmstrom. Pronger had tried to explain it as the inevitable consequence of a 6-foot-6 player hitting a 6-foot-1 opponent, but the league didn't buy it.
Asked if he was concerned about facing disciplinary action again, Pronger became tight-lipped. "I don't know," he said.
Murray said the hit "is not what needs to happen," adding, "I can't for the life of me understand how it was missed by four officials." But any hit can be reviewed after the game, and this one surely won't go unpunished.
The Stanley Cup finals are the NHL's showcase event and this was the first game televised on NBC, widening the potential audience beyond the three dozen people who get Versus. For a player to strike an opponent in the head and drop him helplessly to the ice couldn't have played well on national TV for a league that is still considered barbaric in some circles for allowing fighting.
The hit didn't go over well in Canada, either. Kelly Hrudey, the former Kings goaltender who is a prominent figure on "Hockey Night in Canada" telecasts, emphatically said Pronger should not be in the lineup on Monday.
