NHL suspends two Penguins

Associated Press

NEW YORK

The NHL suspended Pittsburgh forward Arron Asham for four games — the remainder of his club’s series with the Philadelphia Flyers — and gave a one-game ban to Penguins teammate James Neal on Tuesday night for separate infractions.

Asham was punished after being given a match penalty for attempting to injure Philadelphia forward Brayden Schenn with a cross-check on Sunday in the first period of Pittsburgh’s loss that put the Penguins in a 3-0 series hole.

Neal will miss Game 4 tonight for charging Flyers forward Claude Giroux in the third period on Sunday. Neal was given a minor penalty for charging and was ejected.

Sidney Crosby got too caught up in his hatred for the Flyers to recall that one of his best friends wears the orange and black.

No worries, though. Max Talbot isn’t going to delete Crosby’s number from his cell phone.

“He’s definitely a great friend,” Talbot said Tuesday. “He was heated up in the moment and that’s OK. It’s not like I’m not going to talk to him after the series.”

Crosby and the rest of the Penguins lost their cool in a fight-filled 8-4 loss to the Flyers that put them on the brink of getting swept out of their first-round playoff series.

Crosby, the often-concussed former MVP, was at the center of it all. He instigated several scrums, and even dropped the gloves in a rare superstar vs. superstar fight against Claude Giroux.

Afterward, Crosby said: “I don’t like any guy on their team.”

That’s news to Talbot.