More Goalies, More Central League
There were no fights in the NHL last night, so I thought I’d throw some clips together with some goalie fights. If goaltenders start swinging, it’s always popular, even if it’s not that good. Like bad pizza and all that…
So I bring you back to the Vancouver Canucks at Buffalo Sabres game of Jan 15, 1998, exactly eleven years ago. In the third period Jay McKee took out Pavel Bure with a hard hit in front of the Sabres bench. In retaliation Gino Odjick wiped out Dominik Hasek behind the goal. Odjick received a charging major and was tossed for his actions.
Matt Barnaby, never one to let something like that go, ran Sean Burke later in the period. Burke wasn’t shy about dropping the gloves himself, and let Barnaby knew how he felt. Rob Ray grabbed Trevor Linden and took the opportunity to swing away while the officials were busy elsewhere. A couple of Linden’s teammates tried to intervene, but Ray’s teammates held them off. To his credit the Canucks captain hung in there well against the long-time Sabres tough guy.
After that was all over Lindy Ruff made a goaltender switch. You could say it was to protect Hasek in such a rough game. Or you could say it was because Steve Shields didn’t mind throwing down. Immediately off the ensuing faceoff Donald Brashear grabbed Michael Peca. While all skaters piled on, Shields and Burke met at center ice and became the main attraction. They tossed some punches and then grappled for a while as the officials cleared up the rest of the mess, which was mostly Brashear throwing at Darryl Shannon, who stepped up to take some lumps for Peca.
That was Shields’ second NHL fight. His first was the season before, in the playoffs no less, against now-Islanders General Manager Garth Snow. A scrum developed in front of Snow, and as it went towards him, Snow’s stick and hands might have gotten into the action. Shields took the opportunity to skate down the ice and join in, to the delight of the crowd in Buffalo. Rick Jeanneret on the mic made it all the more fun to watch.
The vids:
Garth Snow vs Steve Shields May 3, 1997
Bret Hedican vs Vaclav Varada Jan 15, 1998
Sean Burke vs Matt Barnaby Jan 15, 1998
Trevor Linden vs Rob Ray Jan 15, 1998
Sean Burke vs Steve Shields Jan 15, 1998
Donald Brashear vs Darryl Shannon Jan 15, 1998
More CHL
No, no, not Canadian – Central. The CHL brawl between the IceRays and Mudbugs posted a couple of days ago has gotten a lot of eyes. It was a crazy scene as described here by John. While the CHL can be fight-friendly, I should point out it’s not the Federal League from Slap Shot, and brawls like that aren’t a normal occurance.
That being said, I couldn’t help but post another line brawl avec goalie throwdown. From Dec 20th‘s Texas Brahmas at Arizona Sundogs game, the Sundogs were getting beaten pretty bad at home in the last game of a three-games-in-four-days set (all three games against each other, that’s how AA hockey works). With a little under a minute left the action starts just as the puck is about to be dropped (it never actually made it to the ice before the punches started flying). It’s all skaters for a bit before goalies David Cacciola and Marco Emond joined in and started throwing with some intent.
The vids:
Matt Burto vs Matt Suderman Dec 20, 2008
David Cacciola vs Marco Emond Dec 20, 2008
Greg McConnell vs Matt Suderman Dec 20, 2008
Eric Lundberg vs Karl Sellan Dec 20, 2008
Matt Hanson vs Kyle Hood Dec 20, 2008
Brussian
Brash is taking on language number three (that I know of). With high profile Alexanders (or Sashas, if you prefer) Ovechkin and Semin as teammates, the Donald has been inspired to start studying Russian:
Donald Brashear said he’s a long way from mastering the language, or carrying on a conversation for that matter, but he is studying Russian.
“It’s just for the guys,” he said. “It’s just very hard. They’ll say something and I’ll have them repeat it very slowly, but there’s different sounds in there that I don’t hear at first. I’m sure my French sounds the same to them as their Russian does to me when they speak fast.”
Mike V skating, absorbing
Mike V was on Fox Sports West tonight doing a little pimping for his role in Paul Blart: Mall Cop, as well as talking about his run-in with Steve Montador and his blog for the Ducks. The clip can be seen after the jump.
OHL makes changes
As speculated, the OHL was the first league to make a fight-related rules change in wake of Don Sanderson’s death. Any player who removes his own helmet before a fight will be given an extra minor penalty, a game misconduct and an automatic one-game suspension. It was common for a player to remove his own helmet before a fight due to visors being mandatory. Mark Spector’s take on this is worth a read. Discussion in the forums is here.
Some reads
Coyotes develop nickname system
Lightning Warm Up With Pregame Jousts
Avery signing could have been avoided: Modano
Vinnymania hits Montreal
Tough guy would rather fight than switch
Les bagarres au hockey
