Hockey/nhl

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Outspoken NBC analyst Mike Milbury issued a public apology for his unflattering remarks about Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby on Philadelphia Sports Radio 94WIP.

“I reached out to (team President) David Morehouse and the Penguins about the comments I made,” Milbury said in a statement Tuesday. “In hindsight, I realize what I said was inappropriate and wrong, and I want to apologize to the Penguins organization and their fans.”

Milbury was discussing Sunday’s game between the Philadelphia Flyers and Penguins that resulted in an on-ice melee and coaches screaming at each other on the benches. Flyers coach Peter Laviolette was fined $10,000 and Pittsburgh assistant Tony Granato was fined $2,500 because they were ejected from the game. The scuffle was triggered by a cross-check to Crosby by Brayden Schenn in the third period and a hit on Philadelphia’s Danny Briere in the closing minutes of the game.

Milbury told the radio station that Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma “should have taken off his skirt” and done more to confront Laviolette.

Milbury also said, “Crosby gets cross-checked, big whoop. He said after he came back from his 35th concussion, ‘I’m not going to do this anymore, I’m not going to get into those scrums, I’m going to stay away from that stuff,’ but he couldn’t help himself because there is a little punk in Crosby. He’s not the perfect gentleman, he’s not that little sweet kid you see in all those interviews with his hat pulled down over his eyes. I say screw him, hit him.”

Milbury spoke to Morehouse, but the team declined to comment about Milbury’s apology.

No discipline was expected from NBC, although network officials expressed their unhappi- ness about the comments to Milbury.

Penguins general manager Ray Shero told ESPN.COM, “It (Milbury’s comment) was an attempt at comedy, (and) it fell real short.”

By Gene J. Puskar, AP Renewing hostilities: Officials work to break up fights between the Flyers and Penguins on Sunday that resulted in 15 penalties and coaches from both teams being ejected and later fined by the NHL.