But what I’m getting at is that since he got a match penalty, it only applies to the regular season, just as Clarkson’s doesn’t start until the regular season. I don’t think these kinds of penalties can be applied towards preseason games.
You made this up, lol.
The NHL Rulebook states that any player given a match penalty “shall be automatically suspended from further competition” until a ruling is handed down by the Commissioner.
Clarkson’s “leaving the bench” game misconduct carries an AUTOMATIC ten-game suspension of the players next Regular season/Playoff games.
Match penalties don’t carry any automatic punishment (only suspended from further competition until Gary Bettman makes a call) and it doesn’t matter whether it’s pre-season, regular season or playoffs. A match penalty can result in any combination of fines and/or games.
Alright, I’m with ya. I knew that Clarkson’s didn’t start until the first regular game which means he can play in the rest of the preseason games. I thought the same would apply to Kessel, but I guess it is up to Shanahan at this point.
“(Rolston enters the room, wheeling a large crate. He smashes the crate’s lock with a sledgehammer, and John Scott emerges.)”
My fucking eyes are watering from laughing!!!
That just made my day!
head coach Ron Rolston has been fined for player selection and team conduct as a result of events that took place at 10:01 of the third period
http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=683891&navid=nhl:topheads
This I dont get at all, how can you get fined for player selection when you dont have the last change. Toronto could have easily put out different guys
There’s no play clock. It’s your responsibility to keep your players in line. There isn’t a universe in which a world exists that Kessel lines up with Scott.
It’s a measly $2500 fine that will only prove to be useful as precedence and history for Rolston. Don’t worry about it.
PS- Kessel received a suspension for the remaining 3 preseason games. CALLED IT.
I didn’t make that up Beck, I was told a match penalty carried an auto game suspension. Basically Rolston got fined for not taking Scott off the ice. Also Kessel gets a gift and gets suspended for 3 games that don’t count. Also he loses no money lol what a joke!
Bigger joke:
Manziel for 1st half or Kessel for 3 preseason games?
That’s on Carlyle then. Scott was already on the ice.
It was a first line rotation. He sent/kept Scott out. He knew what he was doing. Ruff was fined for it too.
Meh, there is no rule on the players you can have on the ice. Yes he had a 6’8" player lined up with a 4’ forward, but there is nothing saying he can’t do that.
since Leafs had the last call to make a change, i would put the whole Kessel thing on Randy Carlyle
Buffalo news article http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/sabres-nhl/sabres-tussle-with-toronto-gives-everyone-something-to-talk-about-20130923
What should have been a routine September day in Buffalo Sabres training camp turned into quite the Manic Monday thanks to the Tussle in Toronto.
The Sabres’ third-period line brawl with the Maple Leafs — featuring the first fight of goaltender Ryan Miller’s professional career — was a huge topic across Canada and a video hit on the Internet on both sides of the border. Several Toronto reporters piled into the Sabres’ First Niagara Center dressing room Monday looking for comments from the combatants.
Enforcer John Scott, who did not talk to the media Sunday night, obliged all inquiries Monday.
The 6-foot-8, 270-pound Scott stood tall at his locker in the face of every question, especially as Toronto reporters pushed him on why he tried to attack 6-foot, 202-pound Leafs star Phil Kessel just prior to a faceoff near center ice after a fight between Toronto’s Jamie Devane and Buffalo’s Corey Tropp. The Scott-Kessel confrontation was the final spark to ignite the melee that included every player on the ice.
The Sabres were upset that Devane drove Tropp’s head into the ice at the end of their fight, leaving Tropp bloodied and dazed (and out of Monday’s practice while he was being evaluated). Scott was on the ice at the time and coach Ron Rolston sent him back out.
Leafs coach Randy Carlyle, who had the last change, said he tried to defuse the situation by sending out offensive-minded players and Kessel lined up next to Scott. Bad idea. Scott gave Kessel a heads-up about what was next.
“I said, ‘Phil, I think we’re going to have to go here, just to let you know,’“ Scott said. “I would have went after who ever they put lined up next to me. I don’t know what their coach had in mind. I wasn’t trying to hurt him. I was just trying to send a message.”
Said Carlyle at Leafs camp Monday: “I never believed in my wildest dreams that the attack would come at that type of player from the opposition.”
Scott dropped his gloves to engage Kessel, who responded with two huge whacks with his stick as teammates came to his defense. Leafs forward David Clarkson joined the fray from the bench and received an automatic 10-game suspension Monday night, which will cost him $269,230.80 in salary. Kessel took a third swipe at Scott and also speared him, leaving him a discipline candidate, too.
“I’ve never seen a stick swing like that but he’s got to do what he’s got to do,” said Scott, who said his legs were a little sore from Kessel’s chops. “Hey, I’d be pissed off if someone went after my star guy, too. It’s one of those things. Their coach didn’t have to put Kessel out with me.”
Leafs forward Nazem Kadri said Monday he nearly jumped the boards as well but was held back by teammate Joffrey Lupul. Rolston said when his team realized Clarkson had joined the fray, he quickly communicated to his players to stay put.
Scott said he’ll let NHL discipline czar Brendan Shanahan handle any suspensions but there’s no doubt the Sabres feel Kessel should sit down for a few games.
“For sure,” said Steve Ott. “Not the first slash. That’s something where his instincts took over. But the second one where Johnny’s got three guys on his back like a wild animal and he’s getting whacked from behind, that’s a little gutless.”
“John is a big guy but we don’t really want to see somebody using their stick as a weapon,” added Miller.
Talk radio and columnists in Toronto quickly jumped on the theme of Scott even being in the NHL. Scott, who went pointless last year in 34 games, has one goal and 305 penalty minutes in 180 NHL career games.
Scott, it should be noted, started taking much more of a regular shift at the end of last season and even had a neat pass to Nakita Zadorov to set up the Sabres’ first goal Sunday. But he’s regularly dealt with the kick-him-out-of-the-league talk.
“Jeez, I’ve been hearing that even since I came out of college,” said a smiling Scott, who was a mechanical engineering major at Michigan Tech. “I’m tall, I’m big, I’m tough. It happens all the time. No one is talking about the sick assist I got last night, the baby sauce pass in the middle.”
As things died down at center ice, Leafs goalie Jonathan Bernier challenged Miller. Miller said Clarkson’s foray first got his attention because the Sabres were outnumbered but then he saw Bernier lurking.
“That’s where I thought maybe I should get involved without Bernier,” Miller said. “We were outmanned, I was looking at that and Bernier is looking at me and if I go in there am I going to get jumped from behind which is worse for me.”
Miller, of course, has some recent concussion history and took a few shots from Bernier because it’s hard for goaltenders to throw punches unless they can get an arm out of their chest protector. Bernier did that first.
“I think my defense was OK. Offense to be worked on in the future I think,” said Miller. “I was kinda surprised he wanted to square off. I guess new team, line brawl. I was a little surprised just because it’s preseason but, hey, you’re in Toronto and you get challenged, you can’t really back down.”
Scott joked that he’d work with Miller on his brawling techniques after reporters left the room. To a man, the Sabres loved seeing their goalie jump in.
“It’s about showing up for your teammates and showing up for what counts on your sweater,” Ott said. “And I think every guy did that appropriately.”
Added Miller: “It’s a line brawl, everybody went. In Toronto. Obviously everybody is going to be talking about it. Old time hockey, right? Your teammates are going, everybody is going. You gotta go. Everybody on the ice did what they had to do. That’s part of the game sometimes.”
Baby sauce pass, lol. Never heard that one before.
Yeah, after three guys hopped on his back, he continued hacking at ankles like he was trying to cut down a tree. Definite suspension material.
Yeah, but it is the coaches responsibility to keep control of the situation and take any steps necessary to diffuse it. As soon as he saw Kessel out there, he should have called for a change. If we were down by a goal in any other game or versus any other team, John Scott would not be on the ice. At any other point, if a player of Kessel’s ability was paired up against someone like Scott who can’t even skate… there would be a call for a change.
"But the fact remains that Scott was out there, looking to avenge Corey Tropp after Tropp was schooled in a fight against Jamie Devane, and all hell broke loose because of it. Allowing Scott to remain on the ice after that fight, for the next shift, means Rolston implicitly endorsed anything that might come of it. And since embarrassing (for the NHL) chaos ensued, he has to pay the ferryman now.
It’s not uncommon: Coaches like Jim Playfair and others have had to ante up when their players got out of control. The most prominent the incident, the more likely the fine. Every coach knows this.
Did Rolston do anything that wrong? No. In fact, he did what every coach in the NHL does at some point in the season, which is to send a message using whatever muscle they have on their bench by putting that player on the ice at a strategic time.
But if we’ve seen anything from the NHL, it’s a mandate for personal responsibility beyond intent. You may not have intended to hRolston didn’t intend for Scott to go after Kessel, or for their to be a line brawl. But he sure as hell didn’t do anything to avoid its possibility; and that, in the end, is what earns him a fine."
So Scott doesn’t have alot of points. Neither does Miller or Bernier. No one’s banning Chara from the league. At least Scott can form coherent sentences.
What I find funny about all this is this…based on the fines/suspensions that were issued, everyone is blaming Scott for going after Kessel, yet Scott didn’t get anything. Kessel in my mind had intent to injure where Kassian didn’t and he got 3 preseason and 5 regular games. I know the guys jaw was broke, but come on it was totally accidental. Because Scott didn’t get injured, he got off easy. It’s garbage and sets the tone that shit will fly in the future and players can expect to get away with it as long as they don’t injure the guy.
I don’t know if there was a situation to diffuse? I mean Tropp and Devane fought, Tropp got his bell rung, players parted from the ice and that was it. From what I’ve heard, that fight was mutual and both decided to drop the mitts. So that really should have been the end of it.
I’m also not certain that John Scott would have actually taken punches at Kessel. Of course Kessel didn’t know that, so he swung his stick, which he also did in Philly. Not a good image for Phil regardless of what team or player he’s going up against. I’m not mad about the suspension length, even though Kessel may have only played in one of those 3 remaining preseason games. He gave Scott a couple hacks, big whoop. If he had pulled a McSorely and gotten 3 games, I’m pretty sure Shanahan would be lynched by now.
The Kassian thing, I’m not sure if that was totally accidental.
Here’s the thing. That fight between Devane and Tropp was mutual, but what wasn’t was the head slamming to the ice antic when Devane clearly won, he didn’t need to slam Tropp’s head to the ice. I think all bets were off at that point.
Unfortunately it seems like suspensions in this league are based more on injuries sustained that intent to injure.
And I’m not a big fan of fighting in hockey, I would probably enjoy the game more if they took it out to be honest. However, isn’t this what happens in hockey? A team does something dirty to another player (I do think the slamming of Tropp was more incidental than malice) then the team of that player is going to retaliate. If anything I think Carlyle should be fined for being the idiot and putting his top line out right after a questionable incident.