A purse, a cellphone and a hockey player.

Yesterday night at the rookie dinner of the Montreal Canadiens on the road in Tampa, the evening ended with the police on the front porch of the restaurant.

The whole story involves rookie defensemen Ryan O'Byrne, and a woman who was present at the restaurant claiming to have been robbed of her purse and cell phone.

O'Byrne and the lady most probably shared some time into the restaurant during the evening because O'Byrne was found waiting on the front porch in possession of the purse and cell phone. Even when the police asked O'Byrne about the owner of the purse he answered it was his girlfriend's.

But O'Byrne was never able to name her when asked by the police. The police proceeded and arrested the rookie player. Many players protested, and Tom Kostopoulos went a little too far and was also arrested by the police.

Ryan O'Byrne had to pay $2000 to bail out while Tom Kostopoulos had to hand out $500 to get out of jail.

The whole story is unusual and strange. We have a hockey player presumely robbing a purse and a cellphone but not fleeing the ''crime scene''.

The whole thing is a distraction in itself. The kind of story going on when a team experiences a losing streak. The Canadiens' losing streak shows 2 before the two games to be played in Florida.

The Habs will be tested by the Tampa Bay Lightning first, tomorrow evening. The Florida Panthers on wednesday will pick up the remains should Tampa defeat the Canadiens tuesday.

(Picture: Ryan O'Byrne and Tom Kostopoulos.)