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It’s very easy for a hockey game to get out of hand if the officials aren’t able to control players who are more interested in fighting than actually playing. That was the case with a playoff tilt that unfolded in Canada over the weekend, which was called off toward the start of the third period after one squad ran out of players after racking up a laughable number of penalties.
Rodney Dangerfield famously joked about hockey’s unique nature of self-policing when he cracked, “I went to a fight the other night and a hockey game broke out.” He made the remark at a time when the average NHL game featured at least one donnybrook (they peaked at 1.17 per contest during the 1983-84 season), but the frequency of brawls has decreased over the past few decades (the average now sits at around .25).
There are a number of factors that have led to that decline. Teams now prioritize talent over burning roster spots on an enforcer whose primary role was to dole out discipline, and research into the brain trauma sustained by many of the players who shouldered that role has also discouraged frequent fighting.
However, it’s by no means an uncommon occurrence. There are plenty of situations where hockey games feature multiple fights when tempers boil over, and that was certainly the case during a junior league showdown in Canada that was called off toward the start of the third period after things got firmly out of hand.
A game between two junior hockey teams in Canada ended early after refs handed out 43 misconducts and a total of 572 penalty minutes
We’re still around a month away from the start of the NHL playoffs, but it’s already Postseason Season for many youth leagues across North America.
That includes the St. John’s Junior Hockey League, which is comprised of eight Junior B teams that hail from Newfoundland and Labrador. That includes the St. John’s Junior Caps and the Southern Shore Breakers, who met for the third contest of their five-game playoff series at Goulds Sports Arena on Saturday, March 7th.
The Caps finished the regular season at the top of the standings with a 25-3 record, while the Breakers ended up in the basement after going 7-19-2. St John’s somewhat predictably took the first two games of the series, and they capped off the sweep with a 5-2 win.
However, according to the CBC, that showdown was overshadowed by the ugly scene that led to the officials calling the game off shortly after the third period got underway.
Just how bad was it? Well, I would direct you to the box score that features 20 fighting majors, 43 game misconducts, and a grand total of 572 penalty minutes being handed out between the two sides; for the sake of comparison, the Flyers and the Senators set an NHL record in that last category with a relatively paltry 419 on March 5, 2004.
The Breakers were responsible for 324 of those penalty minutes, with one of their players recording a game-high 40 on his own during a single shift where he got five minutes for a hit to the head, another five for fighting, and 30 from the three game misconducts he concurrently received.
That transpired before another massive melee broke out a little less than two minutes into the third period. That one left both teams without the backup goalies that had replaced the ones who’d been sent on the ice, and the fact that virtually everyone else on the Breakers bench had gotten the same treatment led to the officials calling things off and giving the Caps the win.
St. John’s coach Steve Callahan placed the bulk of the blame on the opposing team and also took aim at the booze-fueled spectators he accused of contributing to the hostile environment.
He said he filed a police report over a death threat issued by one fan who leapt into the team’s bench at one point and claimed they were also prevented from leaving their locker room for 20 minutes due to an unruly group that gathered outside of it.
The president of the league decried the scene, describing what unfolded as “disgusting” and “very disturbing,” and said suspensions will likely be handed out after an investigation is conducted. We’ll have to wait and see if that impacts St. John’s, which will be kicking off a semifinal series with the Paradise Warriors on March 14th.