Felger: Montreal ‘hypocrisy . . . drives me nuts'

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When it comes to local sports, Michael Felger -- the self-proclaimed "impartial observer of the Boston sports scene" -- is sometimes (frequently?) at odds with the fandom.

But in the Zdeno Chara controversy, he's the leader of the pack.

Felger says the "hypocrisy" of the Montreal fans screaming for Chara's head "drives me nuts" -- especially in light of Canadien questionable hits that drew nary a peep from our friends north of the border, such as Max Pacioretty, the victim of Chara's check, boarding the Islanders' Mark Eaton -- and he got into it pretty heavily with hosts from CJAD Radio in Montreal on Thursday. Felger and his partner on 98.5 The Sports Hub, Tony Massarotti, simulcast their show with CJAD . . . or at least they did until CJAD, disgusted with Felger, pulled the plug and hung up. Listen to the entire segment here.

Thursday night, on Mohegan Sun's Sports Tonight with co-host Lou Merloni and former BU and NHL star Shawn McEachern, Felger expounded on the subject:

"When you hit a Canadien, it's always different than when you hit someone else. And this is what drives me nuts. I gave those guys on the radio a million examples of Canadiens cheap-shotting other players; no investigations, no arrests, no anything. But as soon as it's against a Canadien? 'Oh my God!' "

"The Bertuzzi attack on Steve Moore obviously crossed a line. McSorley and Brashear, two-handing a guy with a stick in the face? Okay, that's assault. But riding a guy into a turnbuckle? . . . There's borderline hits in every hockey game . . . If you start bringing in the cops every time there's a borderline hit, you can't have a league. It's ridiculous."

"The only people who think Chara should have been suspended, and I'm one of them, are people who didn't play. Everyone who's ever played the game said . . . that's part of the rink, it's sort of a hockey play . . . I've never heard one player who played the game, outside of Montreal, who said he should be suspended."

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