Never is a game that begins on a 252,000 penalty minute pace a good one for hockey. Saturday night's game between the Chanuks and Calgary Flames was proof of that. To provide background, the situation began as two teams in the Chanuks and Flames separated by just 602 miles geographically and 2 spots in the standings met in an all Canadian clash that most notably renewed a territorial rivalry that has existed between these 2 teams for years.
That animosity was proved before the puck was even dropped. As is customary, the away team submits their starting lineup first, thus allowing the home team to tailor their starting lineup around that of their opponents. Nothing about this custom was different in this game and yet it was the details of that custom that initiated this far from normal beginning to the game. According to Vancouver coach, John Tortorella the card he was given dictated that the Flames would be starting an offensive unit that had already racked up 13 fights in this season alone. To state things plainly, the Flames were starting their 4th line that would normally only be played in situations where the team needed the pick me up that a fight or big hit can provide a team. John Tortorella interpreted this move as a challenge and he so willingly met it by dispatching his 4th line to the ice with one intention. To fight.
However, in a post-game press conference this move was not one meant to prove the toughness of the Chanuks team. He said it was a necessary move intended to protect his key players from what he believed to be a Flames coach intent on turning this hockey game into an edition of the Hunger Games.
"I see the starting lineup and I know the other guy across the bench. And it's easy for people to say well put the Sedin's out there and it's deflated. I can’t put our players at risk that way, with the lineup that he had, I am not going to put those types of players at risk."
For those who did not get where this was all going, I will just tell it straight. The puck was dropped and center ice turned into a place of anarchy spawning fights involving all 10 skaters and a collection of discarded gloves that made all ice not occupied by a duo of angry hockey players look like an exploded laundry mat. Furthermore, a quick analysis of the some 142 penalty minutes assessed as a result of this assault shows 2 10 minute misconducts assessed an 8 5 minute major penalties that resulted in ejections from the game. Ridiculously, the 2 teams spent longer than 5 minutes of the 1st period playing 3-3 hockey. But that was not the end of things. On 2 additional occasions in that first period, scrums erupted thus adding a seemingly endless slew of roughing penalties to the penalty summary of the game and further fueling a rage within John Tortorella that boiled over during the 1st intermission.
In a scene that seems to only have a place in the movie Slapshot, cameras were rolling as Tortorella attempted to fight his way into the Flames locker room during the intermission. Cameras were rolling, broadcasting that sight to all watching the game live or the millions more watching the clip of it that has gone viral. While Tortorella was eventually restrained, the mob of the entire Flames team as well as nearly half of the Chanuks ought to have given the NHL chills. These players were just 1 punch away from a melee away from the intervention of officials while being shoved together in a tight un-padded hallway. While there is a place for fighting in hockey, there is no place for the kind of staged fight at the beginning of this game and of course the ensuing confrontation in the hallway. And here, the ownes is on John Tortorella and Bob Hartly (the Flames coach) to diffuse the situation rather than fuel it.
But as we watched that game last night at least for the Chanuks could we really expect anything more. No, the Chanuks are a team lacking accountability for the cheap plays they commit. They strongly damage the integrity of Nathan Hornton's career via hits by Aaron Rome, hire and stand by dirty players such as Todd Burtuzzi and Raffi Torris who have both assembled long records of malicious actions. They dive and then whine about the penalties assessed to them while all the while refusing to stand up and fight the good fight rather than the staged one where they have the luxury of sending out a skilless enforcer to mash in some faces.
It is teams like this, players and coaches like these that have no place in this sport that holds such popularity in the sports world. These players, these teams, these actions and these coaches are all individual disgraces to the sport of hockey and that is that.
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