Flyers’ Coach Laviolette fined $10,000 for tantrum versus Penguins

It would appear that the NHL found the events of Sunday afternoon's match between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Philadelphia Flyers far less awesome than everybody else. Monday, the league announced that Flyers head coach Peter Laviolette has been fined $10,000 for going Coyote Ugly on the benches and forcing Pierre McGuire to mute his headset.

For the purposes of entertainment context, let us review the tantrum that will cost Laviolette the equivalent of first prize on America's Funniest Home Videos:

With less than 5 minutes to go in the third period, a Joe Vitale hit on Danny Briere sparked line brawl at centre ice. Feeling that Dan Bylsma was playing dirty with the players he had on the ice that late in the game, Laviolette jumped up at the bench and broke one of Maxime Talbot's sticks over the partition.

Said Talbot ruefully, "It was a good stick."

Then he began shouting at the Penguins' coaching staff, which inspired Tony Granato to come up and shout back at him.

Granato will also pay $2,500 for his part in the fracas. Meanwhile, Dan Bylsma was fined $0 for refusing to take off his skirt and go over there.

The total $12,500 will go to the NHL Foundation.

While the NHL is really ruining the party by discouraging this sort of behaviour, it's wisdom to fine the coaches for standing up on the boards. It would be pretty easy to slip and fall onto the ice from there, especially in their wingtips. The last thing we need is a concussion epidemic among coaches.

Follow Harrison Mooney on Twitter at @HarrisonMooney