NHL brawl penalties are on the way after a 10-player scrap between the Buffalo Sabres and Toronto Maple Leafs that even had a Vezina winner dropping the gloves.
The fight started with a scrap between Toronto’s Jamie Devane and the smaller Sabres forward Corey Tropp. Buffalo enforcer John Scott wasn’t happy about the outcome, so he decided to exact some revenge on the Leafs by trying to instigate a fight with Phil Kessel.
Kessel, who is 8 inches shorter than the 6-foot-8 Scott and not much of a fighter, turned down the opportunity to fight and instead swung his stick at Scott a few times.
“It was pretty stupid, right? He said he was going to jump me,” Kessel said. “What are you going to do? He’s a big boy, so if he’s coming after me, what are you going to do?”
This brought all the other players in, setting off a line brawl that even included Sabres goalie Ryan Miller fighting Leafs netminder Jonathan Bernier.
“I just asked him if he wanted to go, and obviously I don’t think he seemed that he actually wanted to go, but that’s the way it goes,” Bernier said. “It’s a hockey game, but you get hyper in energy and I wanted to defend my teammates.”
The brawl is now bringing penalties from the NHL. Toronto’s David Clarkson jumped onto the ice from the bench to protect Kessel, earning him an automatic 10-game suspension from the NHL.
Here is a look at the full NHL brawl penalties, which amounted to 211 total minutes.
