At the risk of sounding like an egocentric Torontian, Rick Rypien pulled a Domi in Tuesday night's game against the Minnesota Wild:
As a result of the above incident, Rypien has been suspended indefinitely pending a hearing at NHL HQ this Friday. How serious his punishment will and should be remains to be seen, and as always, hockey commentators/analysts/enthusiasts are coming down hard on both sides of the fence.
One camp maintains that any fan who goads a player right after doing battle (and can I just briefly, and tangentially, say that I will always support a player who fights someone on the Wild? Their hockey sweaters make them look like Christmas ornaments.) is getting what's coming to him, and that if you insist on poking a bear in his cage, you shouldn't be surprised when you get the paw. The other camp argues that it is never ok to engage a fan in any sort of altercation, and that Rypien should be out for the year. Word on the street is that the Minnesota fan also plans on commencing a legal action against at least Rypien, possibly the Canucks, and maybe even the Xcel Energy Center for failing to erect a tent over the tunnel to the visiting team locker's room. All this, and Domi didn't even miss the third period.
My first reaction to all of this was ... boredom. My second reaction was confusion - Why would I find this boring? I have an insatiable blood lust when it comes to hockey, as witnessed by all of those in a 100 meter radius of me at the Leafs Sabres preseason game when Colton Orr started looking a little edgy, and I jumped to my feet and repeatedly screamed "DO IT!" and "GET HIM!". I then realized that the reason why this has not been as titillating (love that word) to me as it normally would be is because since the season started, the NHL hasn't gone more than 2 games without issuing some sort of fine or suspension.
Shane Doan was just suspended 3 games for a blindside hit on Wings' forward Dan Sexton. Patrick Kaleta was levied with a hefty fine after an attempted headbutt on Zajac. Senators' forward Nick Foligno was fined $2500 for a hit to the head of Patrick Dwyer (and the same was fined to Edmonton's Gilbert for a similar headshot on Matty Stajan). Hjalmarsson and Wisniewski were both suspended 2 games for a blindside hit on Pominville, and an obscene (read: hilarious) gesture, respectively (both of which were discussed here). Mike Riberio was arrested for being drunk in public and Letourneau was suspended one game for instigating a fight late in the game against Johansson.
Hockey season started TWO weeks ago. Colour me excited.
Since Rypien wasn't physically provoked, his little outburst is officially a wanker move. I do like that it gives me some substantive grounds for my somewhat random dislike of the Canucks, though.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, inn response, SI has put together a pretty amusing gallery of notorious player v. fan violence. Check it out:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/1010/player-fan.altercations/content.1.html