04/19/24
December 18, 2010
Russian Hockey Team Mugs Opponent: On Saturday, the Vityaz team in Russia's Kontinental Hockey League instigated a mass brawl six seconds into a game against Avangard Omsk (video). The fight followed a January brawl that resulted in the forfeit of the game. Avangard won 3-2.
The Vityazes started Chris Simon, Brandon Sugden, Darcy Verot, and Josh Gratton. I'm surprised the Hawks coach didn't see that lineup and switch out his skill players for a fighting line to match. It shouldn't be necessary, but after Alexei Cherepanov's death this rivalry has gotten uglier and uglier. They should just take it off the schedule for awhile.
posted by Hugh Janus at 10:19 AM on December 18, 2010
Agreed, Hugh -- what kind of coach looks out on the ice, sees Chris Simon starting and thinks, "Oh, well, he's quite the sniper. Makes total sense!" I think the only way to fix this would be to kick every player involved from Vityaz out of the league. None of them have the skills to come back and play in even the AHL.
posted by wfrazerjr at 11:29 AM on December 18, 2010
At the least there needs to be stiff suspensions to both every Vityaz player on the ice and the coaching staff. That was clearly a planned team-wide cheapshot.
From the link about the January brawl:
Vityaz was also "formally warned of a possible expulsion from the KHL in the event of a recurrence of similar violations," according to the KHL announcement.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 11:46 AM on December 18, 2010
posted by lil_brown_bat at 07:03 PM on December 18, 2010
Man, from that video, looks like the Wings really kicked some ass.
posted by holden at 10:49 PM on December 18, 2010
Doesn't surprise me one bit. When the Hurricanes played that ill-advised game vs. the St. Petersburg team, those guys were gunning for Eric Staal's knees. It got so bad that Coach Mo had to bench him for the rest of the game in the second period.