Video Of Day: Rangers-Canucks Melee

November 4, 2009   ·   Derek Felix   ·   Jump to comments

As we recapped the best we could late last night, the third period between the Rangers and Canucks was wildly entertaining and wacky with stuff you usually don’t see in today’s game.

Things boiled over when Ryan Kesler gave Marian Gaborik a shove during a line change with under 16 minutes left. Earlier in the stanza, Kevin Bieksa cheapshotted Gaborik without the puck knocking him down. Kesler, who also was the best player on the ice netting three assists- finally drew the Rangers’ ire as 10 players were still out there when it happened. That included rookie Dane Byers, who’s no stranger to rough stuff. He wasn’t about to put up with it and finally challenged Bieksa, which only escalated the drama that saw 10 Rangers remain out while seven Canucks also were with many ready to do battle.

Just when things seemed under control, it got going again when Shane O’Brien came from the far side of the Vancouver bench and stuck the butt end of his stick into Sean Avery, who didn’t take well to it, grabbing his stick with TSN’s Ray Ferraro backing up as far as possible in between the benches of what was a dangerous situation. Good thing nothing further happened. Normally, due to his reputation, many would assume Avery did something to provoke the incident which the league will hold a hearing with O’Brien. But even Chicken Parm could see that that wasn’t the case with O’Brien getting a misconduct while Sean got zilch.

As for Byers, with the game out of reach, John Tortorella sent him out to fight Tanner Glass with 70 seconds left, earning an instigator and game misconduct to finish the night with 29 penalty minutes. As expected, the NHL took the appropriate action fining Tortorella 10 grand and suspending Byers an automatic game that will cost him $2,590. Tort’s fine goes to the NHL Foundation while Byers’ goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.

Still, we could care less because it’s about time a player defended a teammate. Especially Gaborik. Now, if only someone would step in for Henrik Lundqvist. The only way opponents will back off is if the team continues to send messages. Anyway, here’s how it looked and sounded courtesy of TSN: