Pens – Isles Game Showing NHL Losing Control of the Game

There’s been a trend in the NHL over the last few months that many hockey fans are not wanting to admit. The brawling and fighting is getting out of control.

As much as I like hockey for it’s physical play and occasional fight, there seems to be a subtle trend toward a more violent league lately. Numerous games can be cited but I would like to point out that the goalie-on-goalie fights are at an all time high. Personally, I like that last point but it helps indicate the growing loss of control by the NHL on its sport.

Several games this year have gone overboard like the 4 fights in the first 3 seconds of the Bruins game.

It reminds me more of the 70s’ when fighting and brawling were common. So were long pants. Hopefully, things won’t get that bad again.

The Bruins and Canadians fought out a game in which the sin bin couldn’t hold all the players.  No discipline handed down.   The Penguins Matt Cooke has spent the last few months purposely trying to hurt players. It wasn’t until late last week he was suspended but not before leaving a line of injured players in his wake.

I personally don’t mind the fights and physical play but I worry that the league may have become desensitized to it.  A few nights back the NHL hit one of the lowest points in terms of out-of-control fighting.  During the Penguins and Islanders game there were almost 350 minutes in penalties including a cheap sucker punch, a goalie/goon fight, and a player leaving the bench to jump into a fight.

This was not an NHL game.  It was on the level of a low-level beer league where both teams are just drunk and pissed. The Islanders forward Trevor Gillies made himself to be the biggest jerk of the night as he left his feet to hit the Penguins Eric Tangradi and then, with Tangradi visibly hurt, goes after him and starts fighting him.

The Debacle in Long Island has set the standard that the NHL must enforce but only slapped a few players on the wrist. The game should have been watched more deeply by the league since it was just a few games back that the Pens and Isles met and we ended up with this goalie fight, instigated by Matt Cooke, in which Islanders goalie Rick DiPietro was knocked out for 4-6 weeks with a glass jaw.

No doubt a few Islanders had revenge in their mind going into the game and that should, if nothing else, add more to the suspension and discipline the league needed to give. Two Islanders were suspended for a total of 13 games and the team was fined $100,000 which did not go over well with the Penguins, who felt the Islanders were targeting their team and many players could have been seriously hurt. Trevor Gillies would be suspended for nine games and forward Matt Martin would be suspended for four games.

Here’s a 10-minute video of all the fights from that game.

Mario Lemiux, co-owner of the Penguins, came out and said this:

“Hockey is a tough, physical game, and it always should be. But what happened Friday night on Long Island wasn’t hockey. It was a travesty. It was painful to watch the game I love turn into a sideshow like that.

“The NHL had a chance to send a clear and strong message that those kinds of actions are unacceptable and embarrassing to the sport. It failed.

“We, as a league, must do a better job of protecting the integrity of the game and the safety of our players. We must make it clear that those kinds of actions will not be tolerated and will be met with meaningful disciplinary action.

“If the events relating to Friday night reflect the state of the league, I need to re-think whether I want to be a part of it.”

I agree with you, Mario. That last sentence shows just how much the league has sunk by letting the goons run the game.

The best way to solve it would be to show a little discipline to one of the biggest goons in the league, the Penguins Matt Cooke.  That’s a good place to start.

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