Canucks and Flames Start Game With Line Brawl

Calgary Flames coach Bob Hartley started his fourth line for the game against the Vancouver Canucks. Canucks coach John Tortorella responded by starting his fourth line. Predictably, the game started off with a bang.

With Kevin Westgarth at center, taking the faceoff for the Flames, Canucks defenseman Kevin Bieksa relieved rookie Kellan Lain and lined up against the big Ivy Leaguer. The puck dropped and so did the gloves. Brian McGrattan squared off against Tom Sestito. Blair Jones took on Dale Weise. Bieksa skated away from Westgarth who inevitably grabbed Lain. Bieksa found Ladislav Smid. Chris Butler and Jason Garrison made the fifth and final line brawl pair.

It took the linesmen a while to break things up and the referees quite some time to sort out the penalties. All but McGrattan and Sestito were tossed. It was Lain’s very first game, and while he started, he saw all of two seconds of it from ice-level.