Ottawa coach Bryan Murray's contention that the Penguins purposely lost their regular-season finale at Philadelphia Sunday was simply "a bit of gamesmanship," NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said last night, but the league could take action against future comments if they "demean the game or the officials of the league."

"Nobody should make too much out of those comments because there's nothing much to them," Bettman said during a news conference at Mellon Arena between the first and second periods of the Penguins-Senators first-round playoff game. "It's a substantive matter. But everybody's on notice that there is a line that can't be crossed, that we won't tolerate."

Monday, Murray said the Penguins' play in a 2-0 loss to the Flyers indicated to him that they wanted to lose, giving them the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference and a matchup with Ottawa. If the Penguins had won, they would have clinched the top seed and played Philadelphia.

Murray pointed to the fact that the Penguins rested star center Sidney Crosby, went 0 for 8 on the power play and played somewhat unenthused.

"Saying we tanked the game, that's not even close," Crosby said after the morning skate. "We have way too much pride and character to do something like that. If you look at Philly, I don't think that was their best, either."

Bettman sided with Crosby, noting that wrapping up home ice throughout the Eastern playoffs would be something the Penguins wouldn't willingly give up.

"With respect to the comment, if you look at it objectively, there appears to be absolutely no merit to it," the commissioner said. "If you look at the facts, [defenseman Sergei] Gonchar played 29 minutes, [center Evgeni] Malkin played over 22 minutes, [goaltender Marc-Andre] Fleury had a great game. The power play was a little weak [0 for 8], but by the way that happened to Carolina Friday night when they went 0 for 9 [against Florida] and got eliminated from the playoffs."