It didn't take long for the Canadiens to respond.
"A player with a broken vertebra and has been knocked out on the ice for three or four minutes … how do you question the integrity of a hockey team and that we're embellishing it?" Canadiens defenseman Paul Mara told ESPN.com's Joe McDonald and James Murphy. "[It] is really questionable coming from a guy who's 42 years old [Recchi is actually 43 years old] and has been around the league for so long. He's entitled to his opinion and we're entailed to ours, but in Montreal we really know the truth."
Mara, 31, played one season for the Bruins and is in his second season in Montreal. Fellow Canadiens blueliner Hal Gill, however, spent a much longer time in a Bruins sweater, as the Providence College grad and Massachusetts native played for Boston from 1997-2006.
Gill didn't discuss Recchi in particular, but did say he didn't pay attention to such comments.
"We had a player that was pretty seriously injured," Gill told ESPN.com. "If you're saying anything other than, 'I hope he's well and I hope he's getting better,' then I don't have any time for it."
