"I think it is a good thing for the game"
- Rob Ray, commenting on tonight's record breaking, brawl filled game between Ottawa and Philadelphia.

While some, including the Flyers, might want to blame the events of tonight's game on the actions of Martin Havlat during their previous match, they'd be wrong.

Donald Brashear was the cause of tonight's fightfest. Just ask him. He'll tell you he started it. He repeatedly turned down Chris Neil's invitations to drop the gloves during the game. He didn't actually drop the gloves until Rob Ray started to take liberties with Sami Kapanen so that Brashear was forced to take on Ray. Then when Brashear was headed for the penalty box, he decided to take some shots at skilled but undersized Sens defenceman Brian Pothier. This led the remaining players on the ice, including the goalies, to take part in a brawl.

After the brawl was cleared up, Jacques Martin put Neil and Zdeno Chara on the ice. Ken Hitchcock, unable to find anyone who regularly drops the gloves on his bench, put an overwelmed Radovan Somik and Mattias Timander on the ice to fend off Chara and Neil.

An incensed Hitchcock then instructed Michal Handzus, John Leclair, and Patrick Sharp to go out and fight whoever they were matched up against.

Anyways, it doesn't appear that anyone was injured as a result of the fights so the only thing that these events did was intensify a growing rivalry. It might not be as intense as the Sens-Leafs rivalry in Ottawa but it's probably the Sens second biggest rivalry.

Their next matchup probably won't compare to this but that won't stop plenty of fans, who are neither Senator nor Flyer fans, from tuning in to see if fireworks will happen again.