Forty years ago the Canucks and their opponent’s benches may have emptied.
Thirty years ago, and probably twenty, Kiefer Sherwood is dropping the mitts.
Ten years ago, he’s at least getting a stinky glove face wash while creating a melee.
Now, nothing.
In the kindler, gentler NHL, you can do things you never used to be able to do in terms of disrespecting your opponent and the game.
Since when did firing a puck into your opponent’s empty net during a stoppage in play become OK?
I’m not suggesting a bench-clearing brawl is required. A fight … hmmmm … maybe. But give me something!
With 1:40 remaining in overtime against the Seattle Kraken, after a ref’s arm went up and it appeared his Canucks teammate Evander Kane was going to go off for tripping, Sherwood raced down the ice ahead of Kraken forward Eeli Tolvanen and as part of “gaining possession” to draw the whistle for the penalty, Sherwood ripped a slapper into the Seattle net that Joey Daccord had vacated for an extra attacker.
“Uh oh,” I thought. But nope. The Kraken just skated away as if nothing happened. Except for one. Tolvanen headed Sherwood’s way before being cut-off by a linesman. Both linesmen in fact, because apparently the men in stripes are more familiar with this disrespectful no-no than the players.
I’m not surprised Tolvanen had it in his head to take action. The Finns are old school. I’ve covered enough World Championships and World Juniors to know they’re aggressive, sneakily chippy, and if the chemistry is right, downright mean.
By the way, with the talent they have in the NHL these days, Finland should be a serious threat to shock everyone at the upcoming Winter Olympics. They won their first ever Gold Medal in Beijing four years ago in a tournament the NHL skipped.
OK. So the Kraken didn’t want to take a minor penalty going after Sherwood to nullify the power play they had just earned. (They failed on the power play and lost in a shoot-out). There’s that concept.
But that also wouldn’t have been a concern in days of yore, because Sherwood would have reacted and the ref would have made sure the Canucks player ended up with an extra two minutes for being a donk’ in the first place.
An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty would have been handy.
Unfortunately, in general, that type of savvy also appears to be a thing of the past.
Earlier Canucks:
— Canucks Should Avoid The Murky Middle
