Over the Line

Hockey is a great and beautiful game and if you ever want to turn a person into a hockey fan all you have to do is to take them to see a game live. There is no sport that combines skill and speed with physical play and it is all done on ice, the game at its best is played at an up and down pace with very few stoppages. A new hockey fan will either love that fighting is allowed early on, or will question it, it can seem out of place and sometimes feel like it takes away from the flow of the game. I am a big proponent of fighting, and have been in my previous posts. I feel that it is a major part of the game when done correctly that allows the players to police themselves to an extent and is a way for a team to change momentum of a game and sometimes a season. Every day before I check TSN.com or read the Toronto Sun online I always check hockeyfights.com to see the best bouts of the previous night. I wanted to write about the exciting Western Conference playoff chase that is evolving this season and how every game played is so vitally important, but after watching this week as the Canadians/Bruins and the Islanders/Penguins disgraced the game with their antics disguised as "fighting" the focus has again been taken away from the game.

The Canadians and Bruins entered their game on Wednesday night in Boston battling for the Norheast divison title as both teams are firmly inside the Eastern conference playoff picture. These are two Stanley Cup contenders this year and two of the original 6 franchises who are long time rivals and have two of the biggest fan bases in the league. Boston won 8-6 in a game that should have been a talking point to the amount of goals against two All-Star goalies in Tim Thomas and Carey Price. Instead, the game featured 187 penalty minutes, and 10 fighting majors (all can be found on hockeyfights.com) that did not include the dance that Thomas and Price engaged in while laughing and removing each other jerseys while not throwing any punches. The problem with 3 of the 5 fights in this game was that in each bout a fighter was fighting a guy who does not fight reguarly or at all. This is a clear violation of the code that lead to one sided beatings and will only lead to more revenge fights when these two meet again.

When Montreal's Benoit Pouliot choose to drop the gloves with the often concussed David Krejci and Bruin tough guys Shawn Thornton and Johnny Boychuck laid into Roman Hamerlik and Jaroslav Spacek it felt wrong from the get go. A line had been crossed with these bouts, like on Thursday's Jesry Shore episode that turned into 45 minutes of domestic violence caught on tape. I am not saying that Krejci, Hamerlik, and Spacek were not game to fight, but the "professional" fighters on the the other side should have known better and respected why fighting is allowed in the game. Colin Campbell and Gary Bettman need to use this game and these incidents as an example and sit down Pouliot, Thornton, and Boychuck.

It only took two days for the thuggery Montreal/Boston game to be overshadowed by the Penguins/Islanders game Friday night on Long Island. 65 combined penalities, 346 penalty minutes, 15 fighting majors, 20 misconducts and 10 ejections (again all on hockefights.com) were the totals for a game that the Islanders were clearly looking for revenge and the chance to make a statement. The Islanders felt disrespected after their last loss to Pittsburgh, they felt that Max Talbot's season ending hit on Blake Comeau was dirty, and were upset about Brent Johnson's knock out punch on Rick DiPietro.

Their solution was to bring up AHL tough guy Micheal Haley who made his first impression ten minutes in with a convincing win after dropping the gloves with Craig Adams. After a professional draw between fighters Eric Goodard and Trevor Gillis, the Isles resorted to a Todd Bertuzzi like move when Matt Martin sucker punched Max Talbot that led to three seperate fights and 30 minutes of game stoppage. First, Talbot should have dropped the gloves on his own early in this game and all of this might have been avoided. Even though he was not fined or suspended for his hit on Comeau he should have answered the bell on his own in the first period. Martin should be suspended double digit games for his sucker punch and shoud be happy he wasn't arrested. Same goes for Trevor Gillis and his assualt on Eric Tangradi and the most excessive suspensions should be handed out for Haley, who went after goalie Brent Johnson and Eric Goodard for leaving the bench in defense of Johnson. Hard to believe that winning the actual game 9-3 was not enough for the Isles.

The Islanders are a team that have less to play for then Washington Generals and the call up of Haley and his subsequent actions coupled with the Martin and Gillis assualts should be enough for Bettman and Campbell to lay down penalties stiff enough to stop this ongoing behavoir that continues to overshawdow the greatness of their game.