2010-2011 NHL season

Are fighting majors up this year?

 

Double J, if you ever find out the secret to NHL justice, you'll have a best-seller on your hands

 

Versteeg to Flyers. Toronto gets 1st round pick.

 

Like you would recognize it.

 

And a third round.
From what I've read, both late in the rounds.
Maybe Burke can get another goalie.

 

Actually, he's the appropriate person to be talking about this right now. Go back and read his comments. Lemieux didn't talk because of the fight itself, he spoke because of the punishment, or lack thereof, handed out. Cooke knocks out Savard. Bruins retaliate with Thornton fighting Cooke. End of story. That's how you handle it on the ice.

Not in this case, though. The Islanders went above and beyond that. Haley fought three Penguins (Adams, Talbot, Johnson). Martin sucker-punched Talbot. Gillies left his skates to elbow Tangradi in the head, continued to hit him after he fell to the ice, then taunted Tangradi, who had concussion-like symptoms -- no wonder he looked defenseless to fight back. And Godard gets the biggest suspension because he left the bench to defend his goalie against a guy who had already fought two of his teammates and seen other teammates get assaulted? Sorry, but Cooke, the penalty minutes, the game misconducts -- those don't figure into the argument here, not with what happened Friday night.

Those guys who took the suspensions, they followed orders. And the money only affects Wang, who may or may not have been on board with this, but if it attracts Johnstown Chiefs-like attention and sells ticket, it will hurt less. It's telling in the bravado the Islanders have shown with the suspensions -- GM Garth Snow praised his team for showing "restraint" when "no one left the bench to create a bench-clearing brawl scenario" and added he was "very proud with the way the team competed." Snow also complained about how one-sided the fines were. "I was a little surprised that it was just our club that got fined."

Does that sound like someone who's been discouraged from replicating Friday night's debacle? It doesn't to me. It tells me the punishment wasn't severe enough to really make a statement to the Islanders and the rest of the league about how to conduct themselves in a professional manner.

 

Fine. Tell me the right team to be whining.

Can Colorado complain? I mean, Bertuzzi nearly killed the Avs' Steve Moore, but then Claude Lemieux rearranged Draper's face. I guess Colorado loses the right to whine.

Can Boston complain? I mean, Savard might have his career ended by Cooke and that's on top of the Ulf-Neely incident, but then there is Marty McSorley. I guess Boston loses the right to whine.

The Canucks can't whine because they cut paychecks to Bertuzzi and Cooke.

The Stars and Rangers can't whine because they cut paychecks to Sean Avery.

The Flyers can't whine because, well, they're the Flyers.

Anyone who employed Dale Hunter, including the Caps, can't whine.

I mean, tell me which team can whine and let's see if they care to comment. Mario didn't whine about the Steckel hit, he didn't whine about the Hedman hit that sent Crosby out of the lineup for what might be at least two months. He "whined" about a game that saw these numbers ...

10 -- Ejections
15 -- Fighting majors
20 -- Misconducts
65 -- Total penalties
346 -- Penalty minutes

... after the Islanders called up henchmen to specifically thug it up for that one game. If they had a problem with Talbot and Johnson, have their enforcer drop the gloves and they can settle it one-on-one. The Bruins had an issue with Cooke, so they had Thornton fight Cooke, who took a beating. Settled. The Penguins have had issues with Carcillo, so they had guys fight him. Settled.

But to say Lemieux loses the right to complain about the punishment when the guy who got the longest suspension is someone who hopped off the bench to protect his goalie, who's being challenged to a fight by a position player who already fought two other guys, doesn't seem right. Especially when Cooke -- who everyone loves to mention -- didn't even play that night. What we learned is that the NHL will suspend a heat-of-the-moment hockey play (Cooke), albeit a dirty one, the same four games as a premeditated sucker-punch that instigates a melee and gives the league a black eye. That doesn't seem right.

 

Lemieux undermined his point when he said he doesn't know if he wants to be part of the league. If he had said, "This is something we as owners have to take a hard look at," it could have meant something. Instead, he was petulant.

His words carry less weight because he's refused to get involved in any league matters. If this really mattered to him beyond his self-interest, he would have been active before an incident that affected his team.

When the Marc Savard incident was so blatant that the NHL rewrote the rules, did he have anything to say? As the owner of the franchise and a former star player, is there any evidence he's spoken to Matt Cooke about using better judgment?

 

Leafs acquire Voros.