Like a
re-run of the Penguins and Flyers series last season, the Canadiens and
Senators are going a bit overboard. What started with a controversial hit on
Habs player, Lars Eller, led to a few choice words from Brandon Prust insulting
the Senators head coach Paul MacLean. While some of us thought this might be an
Alexander Burrows finger-biting situation again, where everyone was mad and got
in each other’s face but left it at that, we were quickly proven wrong in
Sunday’s matchup in Game 3. What is now jokingly dubbed as the “Canadian War of
7:04” a line brawl broke out, leading to 21 penalties issued between the two
teams, and it only got worse from there. Starting off as a little feisty game,
things quickly got out of hand and in the end resulted in over 200 penalty
minutes given along with multiple player ejections, leaving each team with
around ten players, five on the ice, five on the bench. To add insult to
injury, MacLean called a time out with only 17 seconds left on the clock,
forcing the Canadiens bench, down 6-1, to suffer even longer than
necessary…which of course caused even more anger. Surprisingly this game did
not result in any supplementary discipline for either team, probably because
the awkwardness of an empty bench where no one wants to sit together, a 6-1
slaughter on one side, on top of the fourth lost tooth in this series alone, is
enough to make both teams look silly and pitiful enough that Papa Shanahan
realized anymore shame bestowed upon them would just be overkill. Game 4 takes
place tonight, and we’ll see if the teams have come to a truce in their shame,
or if the war is still ongoing.
Meanwhile,
the Leafs and the Bruins fans are also having a bit of a war between each
other, and it’s getting dirty enough someone might have to page the Ol’Shanaban
soon. What no doubt started as a few chirps and a few daring fans, got out of
hand pretty quick. A Leafs fan, wearing his team’s jersey along with a mask,
was punched in the back of the head and knocked unconscious as he fell down the
stairs. Getting this straight now, it doesn’t matter how big the rivalry may
be, or how much you think this arena is “your home” and the other team
shouldn’t be there, it’s never okay to sucker punch a fan for supporting their
team. This violence resulted in an injury and could have been much, much worse.
Now the story behind what may have caused this is unclear, but it is still
unacceptable for these things to occur. The Leafs fan is okay, and multiple
Bruins fans have given apologies in the case of the belligerence, proving that the
actions of that one fan should not lead to a bad reputation of them as a whole.
Hoping to move on from there and keep the series calm, unfortunately, once
things moved to Toronto, it didn’t get much better. Last night, a fan with a
rather distasteful sign led to even more animosity between the two teams. Reading
“Toronto Stronger” with a ribbon to mock the “Boston Strong” logo associated
with the Boston Marathon bombings this sign and was caught on camera sparking
outrage. Now, as we all agreed on with the first incident involving the injured
Leafs fan, let’s not get ahead of ourselves and blame the whole franchise;
while this is utterly classless, it is still the action of one individual fan,
and should not sour the reputation of the fans as a whole..
For the
non-hockey fans, I assure you we don’t all do this; most of my fellow fans
would rather sit back in their seats, watch the game while they down their
beers, and have fun cheering on their team rather than punching someone in the
back of the head or taking a low jab at a rival city suffering from a national
tragedy. And for my fellow fans, please do what I just mentioned, and show some
class. If fans are getting out of control, do your best to stop it and keep
someone in line, I already have a hard enough time convincing my friends this
sport isn’t full of utter nimrods like those in high school football. As for
the players, it’s no fun to watch the game if you have fewer players out on the
ice than a beer league team. Five Guys is the name of a restaurant, not your
team’s bench. I know you want to stick up for your team, and the fans are
cheering you on, but when you get back on the ice with all of two lines, it’s
not funny anymore. Drop the mitts if you want to fight, but don’t try to fight
the whole team, because then no one wins and you look as silly as Don Cherry’s
outfits. For everyone, I have one message: Keep it calm, keep it classy, and
just enjoy the game for what it really is – a game.
No comments:
Post a Comment