Bye bye Boulerice

Today the Flyers waived suspended forward Jesse Boulerice. This could very well mark the end of his NHL career.

By sending him down to the Phantoms (and he'll surely clear waivers), Philadelphia has no intention of letting Boulerice serve his suspension in a Flyers sweater. The move takes his salary off the cap books and frees up a spot on their 23-man roster.

With 24 games left to go on his ban and pointless since the lockout, it's doubtful another NHL team will take a chance on him.

It's yet to be seen how much of Boulerice's suspension the AHL will uphold.

Update: The AHL ruled Boulerice ineligibe to play until Dec. 16.

25 game ban for Boulerice

"I think we're in agreement that there's no place in the game for this anymore. I do think it was an isolated incident. Jesse lost his composure, lost his cool. It's something that's not the right thing to do, at any time."

- Flyers GM Paul Holmgren

Flyers winger Jesse Boulerice received a 25 game suspension from the league for his cross check to the chin of the Canucks' Ryan Kesler.

Philadelphia is on the verge of reviving their Broad Street Bullies handle, and not in a good way. I don't think the recent undisciplined play of Boulerice and Downie is at the directive of the club as was the Bullies in their heyday. But the Flyers have taken a chance on two prospects with troubled pasts and are now 0 for 2 in their rehabilitation. (Boulerice was signed as a free agent tryout this year but was originally drafted by Philly in '96.)

Character wins Cups and Philly still has a ways to go. Call it a Bobby Clarke Hangover.

Boulerice waits for suspension

Maring the Flyers 8-2 defeat of the Canucks last night was Jesse Boulerice's cross-check to the jaw of Ryan Kesler as he was coming around the net. Boulerice and Kesler had been going at it pretty good during the game, but the Philly forward lost his cool.



Boulerice will surely face a lengthy suspension by the league. It won't be a particularly great loss of talent for the Flyers, but combined with Steve Downie's recent 20-game ban, this could eat up Philly's $600K cap cushion.

I will give partial credit to Boulerice and coach John Stevens for admitting that it was an f-ed up act.

"I reacted in a bad way - the wrong way."

- Boulerice

"It's unacceptable, it's something that we can't have."

- Stevens

That's in direct contrast to the last stick incident, Chris Simon's two-handed chop to the head of Ryan Hollweg. Here's a gem at the time from Simon's teammate, super turtle Brendan Witt:

"It always looks worse. I saw the guy after the game, he looked fine. That's enough to tell me that it wasn't that bad. You know what I mean?"

Admitting culpability doesn't excuse Boulerice and this isn't his first lapse in judgement. In 1998, he was suspended for a year by the OHL, 15 games by the AHL and faced criminal charges for an axe swing to the face of Guelph Storm's Alex Long during a playoff match.