A Bench Clearing Brawl Broke Out at MSG Last Night After The Red Wings Had The Nerve To Slide a Puck into Jonathan Quick's Net After The Buzzer
The Rangers and Red Wings played a hockey game last night at Madison Square Garden. As original 6 members of the NHL, they both wore their centennial sweaters. It was a nice little colorful jersey matchup. Kinda wish they didn't both have red pants. It was a lot of red out there. But a fun jersey matchup nonetheless.
One thing that always makes me laugh about sports are the very specific rules that players take VERY seriously. More seriously than what necessarily makes sense. And when a player breaks that rule, all hell breaks loose. In hockey, one of those rules is shooting the puck after the whistle. Hockey players despise it. It makes sense why shooting the puck after the whistle is against the rules. Hockey pucks are hard. They can hurt somebody. And once the whistle blows, players stop paying attention. They take their eyes of the puck. They turn their backs to the play. If someone shoots a puck hard after the whistle, somebody is going to take serious offense to it.
But still… the chances injury there are pretty slim. Especially in the NHL. Unless a player is intentionally firing the puck at a player, he's probably not going to hurt anyone. NHL players are pretty darn accurate with their shots. But in hockey, no matter what level, from beer league to the NHL, players are always looking for a fight. And somewhere along the line, it was decided that if a puck is shot after the whistle, no matter what the situation, no matter how hard, that it's a green light to beat the fuck out of that player the entire team.
On top of that, hockey goalies are notoriously crazy. They do not like watching pucks go into their net. Even if it doesn't count. So when some dirt bag has the nerve the slide a puck into the back of a goalies net after the whistle… well buckle up pal. You're about to get punched in the face.
Classic hockey. Just a good ol' fashioned bench cleaning brawl that resulted from the breaking of an unwritten rule. Well… I guess the rule is technically written. But he shot that puck a split-second after the buzzer. The refs weren't going to do anything about it. But it was enough to give the Rangers the green light to throw down. Love to see it.