|
COPYRIGHT 2001 South Florida Sun-Sentinal
Byline: Michael Russo
FORT LAUDERDALE _ Tie Domi had a heck of week, igniting the already turbulent Toronto-Philadelphia rivalry. It started with him blaming Flyers General Manager Bobby Clarke for what has been a disastrous second half for the Maple Leafs.
Domi said Clarke's antics during trade talks with Toronto regarding Eric Lindros served only as a distraction.
"He did a lot of damage to the chemistry of our team this year," Domi said. "If he tried to accomplish something by disturbing our team, he did a pretty good job."
Domi then took out his frustrations on some heckling fans Thursday night in the Maple Leafs' 2-1 win. Domi, who was crushing players all night with powerful body checks, took exception to Flyers defenseman Luke Richardson hitting a teammate from behind into the glass.
The two agreed to drop the gloves, but veteran linesman Kevin Collins came racing in before the two combatants could exchange fists.
A frustrated Domi was sent to the penalty box and was heckled by fans, who also, according to Domi, threw "things" at him. Domi turned around and sprayed two fans in the front row with water. As a security woman intervened and had the incident seemingly under control, Domi squirted again.
That's when a 36-year-old concrete worker, Chris Falcone, lost his temper.
He says his intent was just to grab the water bottle out of Domi's hands. But when Domi squirted him in the face, the glass partition buckled and Falcone was sent crashing into Domi's lap.
As Falcone got to his feet, he went at Domi. With Collins in the box trying to restore order, Domi pulled Falcone's jacket over his head and punched him....
Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.
|
Bookmark this article
Print this article
Link to this article
Email this article
Digg It!
Add to del.icio.us
RSS
