Outspoken CBC Hockey Night in Canada analyst Don Cherry is expecting the battle of Pennsylvania will turn ugly in a hurry.

“I’m looking forward to this (Philadelphia-Pittsburgh) series. It’s gonna be a war. I’ll tell you one thing. There’s going to be a lot of injuries and a lot of hate. That just shows you, people like violence, they like hate, they like fights,” Cherry said Thursday afternoon during commissioner Gary Bettman’s show on XM Satellite Radio.

“It’ll be a dandy, boy, I’ll tell you this is going to be the best series (of the conference finals).”

Cherry, who will be in Pittsburgh for tonight’s opening game of the Eastern Conference final between the Penguins and Philadelphia, said the biggest surprise so far in this year’s playoffs was the Flyers’ upset win over the Montreal Canadiens in the conference quarter-finals.

“That was a very poor effort on their part. They all blamed it on (Carey) Price, the goaltender, and I think he’s the scapegoat. I think they all played lousy and they didn’t deserve to be (moving on).”