It's been 19 games into the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs and already it has turned very VERY chippy and fists have been flying. NHL disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan and the rest of the NHL officiating staff have had their hands full so far in the playoffs as there were 724 penalty minutes called through the first 19 games, according to Elias Sports Bureau. That's the most the NHL has seen since the 2006 playoffs opened with 804 penalty minutes in 19 games (Info Courtesy of USA Today Article). The two series that have had caused the biggest trouble for the NHL's officials has been both Rangers-Senators and most notably Penguins-Flyers.
NHL Refs have had a real tough time taking control of the Penguins and Flyers during there first round series. We are three games into that series and the only game in the series that has moved along quietly was Game One. That one went in favor of the Flyers 4-3 in Overtime as the Penguins blew a 3-1 lead they held at the end of the first period. Game Two again went to the Flyers this time by an 8-5 final score in a wild affair. Again in this one the Penguins held a 3-1 lead at the end of the first but weren't able to make it stand up. Game Three was by far the most physical of any game not only in this series but in the entire playoffs. 158 total penalty minutes were handed out in the 8-4 win by the Flyers. That game including 72 in a rough-and-tumble first period that included Sidney Crosby and Claude Giroux fighting and Arron Asham being ejected for cross-checking and punching Brayden Schenn. There was a match penalty assessed to Arron Asham, game misconducts given to Kris Letang, Kimmo Timonen and Craig Adams, and four players received 10-minute misconducts in the last five minutes of the third period. There were also three fights that highlighted a pair of melees, one in the first and another late in the third.
What really made this game wild was the huge brawl that came at the 15:18 mark of the 3rd period. It would be somewhat difficult for me now to try and actually describe in words what exactly happened during this little brawl so why don't I just show it to you. here is the crazy fight near the end of the hockey game:
It doesn't take a genius to figure out this series was going to be physical but I don't think anybody could have predicted this happening. Now I somewhat understand the need for this kind of physical play but I mean come on there really is no need for THAT much physical play. And this isn't the only series to get chippy.
The first real incident to take place this year in the playoffs was Game One of the Predators-Red Wings series in Nashville. At the final buzzer, Nashville's All-Star defenseman and captain Shea Weber received a roughing penalty for a series of hits on Detroit's Henrik Zetterberg. Replays showed the 6-foot-4, 232-pound Weber grabbing the head of the 5-foot-11, 195-pound Zetterberg and slamming it into the glass. Weber was fined $2,500 by the NHL for the incident. Here is the video of it:
Now this should have been a suspension and not just a fine if you ask me. This was some of the fallout from the incident thanks to NHL.com:
Weber was asked if he thought he would need to worry about any possible further supplementary discipline.
"I don't know. He hit me from behind, so we'll see," he said. "I don't know."
Asked what sparked the incident, Weber simply said, "It's playoffs. It's playoffs."
I really think that is such crap coming from Shea Weber. Here is a guy who is the Preds Captain and one of the better defenseman in all of the NHL. Yes this is the playoffs and I understand that emotions can run high during games even in the first round, but there is really no need to pull something stupid like that. If I was Brendan Shanahan that should have been at least a one game suspension. There really is no place in the game for something like that and for Weber sake thankfully Zetterberg wasn't seriously hurt otherwise he could have been in bigger problems. And saying that its the playoffs sure as hell won't cut it anymore. So Weber should have been thanking his lucky stars this wasn't worse.
Now as for actual suspensions there have been three handed out, two that the punishment fit the crime and one that should have been a bit heftier. First was a hit by Byron Bitz of the Canucks on Kyle Clifford of the Kings in game one of the Vancouver-LA series. Clifford wasn't looking behind him as he was staring down at the puck at his feet trying to play it and he got rammed into from behind hard by Bitz. Byron got a two game suspension for the check and that was a good ruling by Shanahan. The other suspension went to Carl Hagelin of the Rangers for his Elbow to Daniel Alfredsson of the Senators in Game Two in MSG. The hit knocked Alfredson out of the game and cost Hagelin three playoff games starting with Game three of this series.
The Rangers-Senators series started getting really chippy in game two and that all started thanks to what some would call a cheap shot in game one. Brian Boyle started throwing punches late in the third period of game one in a scrum in front of the net that set a few hostilities off near the end of game one, which the Rangers had already had in hand. Then at the Start of Game Two things really got interesting. Boyle was the focus of the Senators' attention for an incident in Game 1 where he roughed up Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson after a whistle. Senators coach Paul MacLean inserted Carkner and tough guy Zenon Konopka into the lineup for Game 2 in an attempt to add grit, and it worked almost to perfection. o how did Ottawa respond to Boyle's actions? Easy, it was countered with a first-period melee involving defenseman Matt Carkner unleashing a series of punches that knocked down Boyle, who would not drop his gloves. The ensuing fracas resulted in Carkner and Rangers forward Brandon Dubinsky receiving game misconducts just 2:15 into the bitterly intense contest. Dubinsky was visibly upset after being ejected, knocking over a whole jug of gatorade on his way to the Rangers room, and he had every right to be mad, he was sticking up for a teammate who got basically jumped and he got ejected, I would be mad as hell too.
That wasn't the only incident to come out of this as Ottawa Senators forward Matt Carkner has been suspended for one game for continuing to inflict punishment upon an opponent who was an unwilling combatant in an altercation during Game 2 of the team's Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series with the New York Rangers in New York on Saturday, April 14, the National Hockey League’s Department of Player Safety announced today.
Carkner instigated an altercation with New York forward Brian Boyle, who did not respond. After knocking Boyle to the ice with two punches, Carkner continued to throw punches at his opponent, who was an unwilling combatant. Carkner's actions classified him as an "aggressor" under NHL rules.
The incident occurred at 2:15 of the first period. Carkner was assessed a minor penalty for instigating, a major penalty for fighting and a game misconduct.
So as you can see Brendan Shanahan has been a very busy boy the past few days with physical play in the playoffs. And if this is any possible indication of the way things are going he could be in for a long next few months as the playoffs wind down towards the finals.
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