Arizona Coyotes: Post Game Brawl Puts Exclamation On Poor Effort From Coyotes
The Arizona Coyotes produced their worst effort in several games on Monday night against Buffalo. After the game, however, business picked up a bit with Zack Bogosian going after Anthony Duclair and Shane Doan attempting to get after any aggressor in a Sabres’ jersey he could find.
The Arizona Coyotes put in a poor shift on Monday night and found themselves on the receiving end of a 2-1 loss to Buffalo.
After regulation expired, however, some words were exchanged between Antoine Vermette and Rasmus Ristolainen which eventually splintered into Shane Doan and Ristolainen also sharing pleasantries.
The ensuing free for all was equal parts encouraging and embarrassing, along with a heaping helping of disappointment.
The postgame scrum evoked more emotion from the Arizona Coyotes than the team had shown all night, with the exception of the two minutes of play right after Antoine Vermette scored to cut the Sabres’ lead to one goal.
Somewhere in all of that mudslinging, Zach Bogosian took exception with the words of Anthony Duclair and decided to pummel him repeatedly in the head as Duclair failed to defend himself or escape the beating.
This incensed the rest of the Coyotes, who attempted to intervene and break up the “fight”.
In the midst of the Bogosian buffoonery, Ristolainen pulled Oliver Ekman-Larsson out of the pile and the two jawed at each other separately.
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For whatever reason, Ristolainen decided to punch OEL. OEL swung back, Doan went after Ristolainen, and Bogosian and Marcus Foligno intervened as well.
The whole situation was a mess of bodies and equipment that honestly made very little sense.
The melee resulted in 34 penalty minutes for the Arizona Coyotes and 27 penalty minutes for the Buffalo Sabres, including a game misconduct for Zach Bogosian.
From the Coyotes’ perspective, no players were tagged with game misconduct and the only truly questionable interaction was with Doan involving himself in the Ekman-Larsson and Ristolainen engagement.
The Buffalo Sabres were not so lucky, with Zach Bogosian’s inexplicable attack on Anthony Duclair being the primary catalyst for the entire situation getting out of hand.
Bogosian has ten NHL fights to his credit including one last year against former Coyotes forward Rob Klinkhammer and has flirted with suspension in the past. Needless to say, Duclair has no fights on his NHL or major junior hockey ledger.
The question on everyone’s lips coming out of the arena was whether or not suspensions would be announced for any members of each team, most notably Doan and Bogosian.
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So far, however, it looks like everyone is going to skate by with no more than a few bruises and bruised egos.
As a fan of the team, I respect the captain for attempting to defend two of the team’s most important young players from old fashioned hockey violence.
Also as a fan, I wish the fire that the melee lit in everyone’s belly had been present when points could be earned in the actual standings.
Maybe they can take it from the top next time?