There has been a lot of media attention and insults swirling this past week, regarding Philadelphia Flyers goon Daniel Carcillo after he squared off against New York Rangers superstar Marian Gaborik during the Flyers' 2-0 win on Jan. 21 in Philadelphia.
The only problem is that Carcillo, technically, didn't do anything wrong. Not unless your name and number regularly appears on the back of a Rangers sweater. While New York has reason to be upset, who wants their best player dropping the gloves with the opposing team's enforcer anyway, no one but keep the outcry behind closed doors. Not in the media otherwise the whole ordeal will get blown out of proportion, like it already has.
Determined Gaborik Wouldn't Back Down From Carcillo
If you watch the replays, it's actually Gaborik who tosses his mitts aside first, meaning he's fair game, Carcillo willingly accepted and got some haymakers in.
Carcillo did what every enforcer in hockey is paid to do, engage in rough festivities, protect your team and be physical against the opposing team's top players.
There was no intent to injure, it was just your average hockey play. A regular hockey fight that Carcillo happened to have the upper hand on. A man who sometimes knows no boundaries, Carcillo let up as soon as Gaborik hit the ice so there was no nastiness or cheap shots in the brawl.
It was a heat-of-the-moment play caused by commotion in front of the Flyers net, in which a melee ensued that every player on the ice was involved in.
It's not up to Carcillo to watch out who he grabs a hold of, although you can bet Gaborik would've been at the top of his list. It's up to the Rangers to stick up for their franchise player. Not one New York player rushed to Gaborik's aid and that should be a cause for concern. It wasn't against 'the Code', a fabricated rule that old-school hockey minds believe is the correct way to play the game. No nonsense, no cheap shots, no boundaries type of hockey where the tough guys only fight other tough guys.
Carcillo does go over-the-edge at times but in the same way Rangers forward Sean Avery does. Tortorella is a passionate coach and that's what hockey fans want to see but it's also a slight contradiction. It can't just go one way. Physical players want to knock the skilled players off the puck and off their game by playing hard-nosed hockey.
Gaborik, an unlikely combatant, deserves credit for sticking up for himself and not shying away from the rough stuff, having amassed just 25 PIM all season, quite minimal compared to Carcillo, who sits tied for third in the NHL with 132 PIM and has 12 fighting majors. Gaborik earned 20 percent of his total PIM all season in just one play.
Had Gaborik actually won the fight, he would been praised as a hero for scrapping against the opposing team's agitator. Gaborik gets paid to score, as he has done all season with 29 goals and 61 points in 50 games, Carcillo gets paid to fight and get under his opponent's skin, which he does quite well.
Marian Gaborik vs. Daniel Carcillo
New York Should Be Sticking Up For Their Star
Gaborik is Broadway's lone star, losing him would be catastrophic. The Rangers ought to protect every chance they get or it'll be a long season.
Rangers head coach John Tortorella was livid at referees and the Flyers after the penalties were all sorted out, which left New York shorthanded after Brandon Dubinsky was assessed an extra minor for unsportsmanlike conduct.
By star comparison, on Jan. 12 in a game between the Washington Capitals and Tampa Bay Lightning, Tampa Bay's Steve Downie got tangled up with Capitals star Alex Ovechkin. Washington's Matt Bradley flew off the bench and rushed to his teammate's side to fight Downie. Ovechkin was willing to go with Downie but Bradley wanted to make sure of three things, that Ovechkin didn't get hurt, to show Washington had their star player's back and to make sure his team wouldn't be without Ovechkin's service for an entire five minutes. Honourable plays like this make utility players like Bradley even more valuable to teams contending for the Stanley Cup.
Bradley was given a 5-minute fighting major, 2-minute instigator for being the third man in addition to a 10-minute misconduct. Somehow this was probably a penalty Caps coach Bruce Boudreau didn't mind seeing his team take, especially since it was at the tail end of a 7-4 loss with only four minutes remaining.
Matt Bradley vs. Steve Downie
Rangers Coach John Tortorella Doesn't Hold Back Any Punches
Gaborik took the high road answering post-game questions, downplaying the incident saying the scuffle happened "spontaneously" and didn't think the two would fight in the future.
His coach, however, didn't hold back, claiming there was "no honour" in Carcillo fighting his team's best player and sarcastically called Carcillo a 'tough guy'.
Perhaps the Rangers should take a page out of their Eastern Conference foes playbook and protect their star players anyway and whenever they can. These two teams meet next on Mar. 14 at MSG and again on the final weekend on the regular season (Apr. 9-11) in a home-and-home affair.
Should be a dandy.
Thomas Cranston - Thomas Cranston is a graduate of the Journalism (Print) program at Durham College (Oshawa, Ontario, Canada). He is passionate about a wide ...
