NHL

Even The Announcers Wanted To Punch People During Game 3 Of The Penguins-Flyers Series

As noted yesterday, things got pretty out of hand between the Pens and the Flyers during their first round playoff series. Three players were thrown out in the first period, there was a sickening cheap shot that earned a match penalty, and even golden boy Sid the Kid got into it, dropping his gloves and trading, um, shoves with the Flyers’ Claude Giroux.

And that’s all well and good, I suppose. Fighting is, for some reason, an inextricable part of hockey: emotions are running high, physicality is a constant factor, and it’s hard not to want to punch Canadians — of which there are many in the NHL — in the face.

This lust for blood permeates the entire sport, from the players and the coaches on up. And that includes Chris Therien, current color commentator for the Flyers and ex-Philly defenseman, who was calling the game yesterday for Sports Radio 94 WIP (via Bob’s Blitz):

Therien continued to lace into Crosby, with zingers like “Get out in the open and drop your gloves. Go! Go ahead Schenner, take him,” and “They should put one of those little nuks in his mouth. What do you call those things there? Those little baby soothers.” (To which Tim Saunders replied, “In my day we called them nipples,” which is probably worth a post in itself — but I digress.)

Of course, Therien has a dog in this fight: he’s an ex-Flyer, so he’s a former player who is predisposed to dislike the Penguins. But when the announcer is calling for players to punch someone’s lights out, “concussion or no concussion,” has this whole thing gone too far?

In hockey, it’s considered an honor and a necessity to beat the shit out of your opponent. In football, if you talk like that, you get suspended indefinitely. Perhaps this is comparing apples and oranges, but in general, fruit should not leave a bad taste in your mouth. And this hockey game, where the final score of a very important Game 3 was overshadowed by the fisticuffs, left nothing but blood and broken teeth in the mouths of many.

This was a playoff game in a professional sport, meaning it should be a display of highly competitive, top-notch hockey. Instead, there was Therien’s concussion rant and this particularly telling quote from Flyers coach Peter Laviolette, talking about Crosby fighting Giroux: “In the end, that’s really playoff hockey. A couple of the best players in the world dropping the gloves going at it.”

That’s what playoff hockey is? The best players fighting each other? No — that’s playoff boxing (if there was such a thing). Playoff hockey should be about goals and assists and saves and passionate competition. To hear this kind of dialogue from both announcers and coaches says that the culture of fighting in this game has gotten out of hand. Nobody should want to punch out Sidney Crosby, no matter how much of a dick he was being yesterday. Because at the end of the day, he’s a fantastic hockey player, and we want to see some fantastic hockey this time of year.

So, hockey fans/coaches/players/commentators/anyone else who cares about the game: simmer down now, okay? That’s enough of that kind of talk. Otherwise, you’re all going to remain an afterthought in the world of professional American sports.