Welcome To Another Day Where Hockey Players Have To Fight For Perfectly Clean Hits
Honestly it's hard to even call this a fight. It wasn't. Ross Colton just immediately jumped Schneider and tackled him to the ice after Schneider laid a massive hit on Nick Paul.
But that's not how this was seen in the eye of the law. According to the NHL rulebook, "a fight shall be deemed to have occurred when at least one player punches or attempts to punch an opponent repeatedly or when two players wrestle in such a manner as to make it difficult for the Linesmen to intervene and separate the combatants". Since both of these guys were wrestling around on the ice with their gloves off, it has to go down as a fight. So both players get fucked by the long dick of the law with 5-minute major penalties.
Granted, Ross Colton gets an extra 2-minutes for instigating the fight and another 10-minute misconduct. But still. The only thing Braden Schneider did here was put a perfectly clean shoulder directly through Nick Paul's chest, and now he's out of the game for at least the next 5 minutes. As every drunken hockey dad would scream at 7am on a Saturday morning at their kid's peewee games, "LET THE BOYS PLAY!!!"
If I've said it once, I've said it at least half a dozen times. The rule needs to change here so that guys who get jumped after landing a clean hit don't have to sit in the penalty box for the next 5 minutes. The extra instigator penalty given to a guy like Ross Colton isn't enough. Imagine if this were game 7 of a playoff game. I'm sure the Rangers would love to have Schneider out on the ice for those first 5 minutes of the 3rd period in a 1-goal game. But they can't because he got jumped after a clean hit. So instead of the instigator penalty, here's what needs to happen--the player who gets jumped after a clean hit should only receive a 2-minute minor for roughing, regardless if they get into a full blown brawl or not. If the hit before the fight wasn't going to be penalized, then it should just be a roughing. Meanwhile, the instigator still gets a 5-minute major. That way the non-aggressing team here gets at least a 3-minute powerplay after.
I love fighting. I think it's essential to the game. But maybe, juuuuust maybe, you don't need to fight a guy just because he hit your teammate a little too hard for your liking. Find him with his head down later in the game if you have to. But don't just jump the guy like a maniac.
P.S. -- This playoff series is going to rule.