By: Kody Kobik
Word came down late Saturday night about the ramifications regarding Friday’s night fight fest. As expected Eric Godard received at 10 game suspension for leaving the pens bench to engage with Haley who was trying to fight anything that moved. It was believed that coach Bylsma would receive a suspension for Godard leaving the bench, but it was not the case and he will be at the helm Sunday against the Rangers.
The New York Islanders ended up receiving the harsher punishment for their careless acts on the ice and just plain stupidity. Matt Martin received a four game suspension for his Bertuzzi like attempt to sucker punch Max Talbot. This was an apparent response to Talbot’s LEGAL hit on Blake Comeau which has left him out of the lineup since.
Trevor Gillies received a nine game suspension as well. Gillies took a run at the Pens Eric Tangradi, who now has concussion like symptoms. Gillies skated toward Tangradi who was along the boards, left his feet, and gave him an elbow to the head. Gillies then proceeded to punch Tangradi when he was falling to the ground, and covering up. Tangradi needed help from the trainers to get up, at that time Gillies was standing in the runway taunting Tangradi. People talk about Matt Cooke being a dirty player, but this doesn’t compare to what he does. If it was up to me Gillies would be done for the year, and made an example of. There is no need for that, and he is a disgrace to the league.
The Islanders were fined a total of $100K for their team acting like a bunch of thugs. Colin Campbell stated “the team must bear some responsibility for their failure to control their players.”
Lost in the hype around the suspensions, is another fight by Brent Johnson. Talbot and Haley got into a scrum, and as Haley was skating away he apparently challenged Johnson, and of course, Johnson obliged him. Johnson got a few pops in before Godard left the bench to finish things. Johnson is now at two fights this year, and we could see one final one during the final matchup.
All and all the game produced 346 penalty minutes with 15 fighting majors. This will make for an interesting series finale for the Pens and Isles on the 8th of April.
As always you can follow me on twitter at HYPERLINK "http://www.twitter.com/psk_kody" www.twitter.com/psk_kody
By: Kody Kobik
Talking about life, sports, politics, and everything else imaginable.
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