Include Brendan Shanahan, the director of the NHL’s Department of Player Safety among the many people who had a problem with what Flyers goaltender Ray Emery did in last Friday’s game against the Capitals.
In the third period with Washington winning 7-0, a line brawl began when Wayne Simmonds and Tom Wilson engaged in a fight, and it escalated to the point where Emery skated the length of the ice to take on Capitals goalie Braden Holtby, who clearly didn’t want any part of the altercation and took several unblocked punches to the head.
It was a scary, dangerous and embarrassing scene for the NHL, and one that Shanahan disliked quite a bit.
“I hate what Ray Emery did,” Shanahan said Tuesday during an appearance on Sportsnet’s Hockey Central. “I wouldn’t like it if I were a teammate of his. I wouldn’t like it if I were an opponent of his. And I think, more important, if the rest of the caretakers of our game, the general managers, don’t like it, it’s important for us to say when a rule is not properly addressed in the rulebook. And I don’t think it is.”
When the general managers gather for their yearly meetings, expect the rule book to be changed so it’s easier to discipline (and suspend) players who do what Emery did on Friday.
One change that might be made to the rules are a 10-game suspension for goalies who travel down the ice to fight, which will reportedly be discussed at some point.
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