During the second intermission of Tuesday’s Game 2 between the Blues and Sharks, NBCSN analyst Mike Milbury said some things he probably shouldn’t have. While lamenting the stupid penalties that Blues players took in the second period, Milbury advised the players to get the most out of their penalty minutes by injuring opponents.
"If you're going to slash him, break a bone. If you're going to hit him from behind, give him a slight concussion." — Mike Milbury.
— Adam Gretz (@AGretz) May 18, 2016
Welp, that’s not great advice.
Milbury, perhaps immediately realizing how ill-advised his comments were, followed that up by saying “I don’t mean this too seriously, obviously.” One can assume Milbury just meant that players shouldn’t be taking meaningless penalties, but used some pretty poor judgement when picking how to go about it in front of a national TV audience.
As questionable as it was, such commentary isn’t particularly surprising from Milbury, a guy who enjoys pushing the envelope and occasionally beating up people with their own shoes. His brash, old-school approach to analyzing the game is a big part of the reason NBC has him behind the desk.
That being said, it’s still probably not a message the network (or the NHL) wants to see conveyed to its audience, especially with concussions being taken so seriously nowadays. It’ll be interesting to see if he’ll face any sort of repercussions for the comments in the coming days.
