Fighting Zdeno Chara--Still One Of The Worst Decisions Anybody Could Ever Possibly Make
Alright now to be fair
It's not like Yakov Trenin really had much of a say in the matter. The fight was on as soon as he laid that hit on the Swedish Sebastian Aho. It's not like he went out looking for the fight. But if you know you're on the ice at the same time as Zdeno Chara and you still try to bundle a dude into next week, that's basically the same thing as making the decision to go out and fight Big Z. And those decisions have consequences. Primarily finding yourself in one of the most shit-your-pants fear inducing situations one could possibly find themselves in on a sheet of ice.
Being gripped up by a pissed off Zdeno Chara with no possible way out.
It doesn't matter that he's 44-years-old at this point. You find yourself in this situation, you're as fucked today as you were 20 years ago. Yakov Trenin had to find that out the hard way last night and now he's made the blood donations to show for it.
What's sick about Zdeno Chara is that I don't think he even likes inflicting pain on people. He's an absolute mutant out there who is capable of physically ending every opponent if he wanted to. But for the most part, he chooses not to kill. He only fully flips that kill switch if you force him to. And I'm sure he's also a little quicker on that trigger when the Islanders are losing 11-games in a row and he's wasting one of the last remaining years of his career on a team whose season is borderline over before the holiday break. 44-years-old or not, Zdeno Chara is still 6'9", he's still a mutant, he's frustrated with the way the season is going, and he's ready to bash somebody's skull into a pulp about it.
Who wore it best?
You never go full headless horseman.
Sidenote: Fighting Zdeno Chara might be a terrible idea. But want to know what's a great idea? Buying Rough n' Rowdy tonight. It's about gassin' beers, it's about chuckin' knucks, it's about respect.