Coach Fight!!!
You want to see what would make thousands (okay, hundreds... okay, tens) of Los Angeles Kings fans across the world collectively hold their breath? Okay, I'll show you... but I warned you first!
You've got to be kidding me.
And in this case... a picture is nowhere near the thousand words you get from this video:
Dion Phaneuf... if you were already upset at not making the Canadian Olympic team instead of a 20 year old kid who has only been in the league 2 years... then tonight, you really didn't do such a great job convincing Steve Yzerman that he made the wrong move. Let's break it down, huh?
Oh yeah, now that I look at it, that puck is nowhere fucking near that hit.
So don't listen to what every single Calgary Flames blog is going to say in the morning. (I love that Flames Forum said Kopitar embellished the hit!?!) It didn't matter that the icing was waved off at the last second. Dion Phaneuf was not going for the puck. Anze Kopitar was. But when Phaneuf crushed Kopitar into the boards... the puck was nowhere near the play. Even though the icing was waved off at the last second, Phaneuf should have been aware of NHL Rule 81.1. And I quote:
"Any contact between opposing players while pursuing the puck on an icing must be for the sole purpose of playing the puck and not for eliminating the opponent from playing the puck. Unnecessary or dangerous contact could result in penalties being assessed to the offending player."
I think the 5 minute major for boarding and the game misconduct was the right call. As it's been said in the past... it's these types of plays that are going to injure NHL players. Hell... even Don Cherry wants no-touch icing in the game of hockey. And he loves hits! Anze Kopitar is lucky that he made it out of Phaneuf's death grip in one piece... there is no denying it was a brutal hit. Just check out the mark the dasher board made on Kopitar's left cheek:
Yeah, those 2 dimples on his cheek were not there when the game started.
Actually, all the hit did was give Kopitar the chance to try out for the newest musical on Broadway, Young Frankenstein.
So what is the natural response in a game where the first 5 minutes have been full of big hits? COACH FIGHT!!!
In case you missed it on the video... The Royal Half has received footage of this Coach Fight™ in super slo-mo:
"Screw you and the brothers you rode in on."
"You won't believe what he just said about my brothers!"
