Pittsburgh Penguins, New York Islanders: The NHL Refuses To Take a Stand

In the dying moments of a Pittsburgh Penguins 3–0 win over the New York Islanders on February 2nd, Isles goaltender Rick DiPietro stepped in the path of a forechecking Penguins forward Matt Cooke, sending him flying into the corner. A scrum ensued and Penguins goaltender Brent Johnson would skate the length of the ice and engage DiPietro.

As both goaltenders grappled, Johnson landed a punch to the face of DiPietro, sending him to the ice—a knockdown. Johnson would lay off once DiPietro went down and even showed compassion, tapping him on the pads before he headed back to the Pittsburgh locker room.

However, what appeared to be relatively unimportant events the next few moments proved to be very influencing.

The camera focused on Johnson as he and fellow Penguins netminder Marc-Andre Fleury would laugh about the incident, something which was most likely watched over and over again by Islanders playing personnel, and would be the proverbial gas thrown on the fire that would be the next contest between the two teams on February 11 at Nassau Coliseum.

The Islanders came out firing in the first period with Travis Harmonic, Jesse Joensuu, P.A. Parenteau and Michael Grabner all grabbing first-period goals and staking the Isles to a 4–0 lead during the intermission.

Pens forward Craig Adams and Isles forward Michael Haley fought midway through the first, and that would just be the start of a very eventful night for both players.

Eric Godard and Trevor Gillies squared off to finish the first period. 

The Islanders would continue the scoring onslaught in the second getting the score to 6–0. With the rout on, the Islanders would now focus on other activities to finish off the contest. 

Just over five minutes in to the middle frame, Islanders forward Matt Martin attacked Pens forward Max Talbot at center ice with what appeared to be a sucker punch from behind.

Martin would not receive a dedicated penalty for the sucker punch, but he was assessed with an instigator infraction, along with a game misconduct for his actions. All other participants in that fray were also shown the door.

Martin was levied a four-game suspension by the NHL for his actions. While not immediately visible, Martin did attack Talbot from behind and was only stopped when Deryk Engelland of the Penguins intervened. Most media types called for a substantial suspension for Martin, citing comparisons to the Todd Bertuzzi/Steve More incident.

One line brawl down, and the game was just getting started. 

Just under five minutes played in the third, and the game would really turn for the worse as Isles enforcer Trevor Gillies laid a crushing check on prospect Eric Tangradi of the Penguins. The hit was high and delivered to the head of Tangradi. As a stunned Tangradi fell to the ice, Gillies threw punches to the back of his head. 

As assorted Penguins came to Tangradi’s defense, another full-scale scrum would occur in the Isles defensive end. As the fight continued, Gillies was forcefully restrained by a linesman and was escorted into the tunnel toward his own locker room. Gillies, obviously continuing to steam ahead in bad-decision mode, continued to stand in the tunnel and verbally berate a distressed Tangradi.

A two-minute minor for roughing, a five-minute major for elbowing, a five-minute major for fighting, a 10-minute misconduct, a game misconduct, a nine-game suspension a day later and hopefully a massive loss of respect in NHL circles were assessed to Gillies. 

Also involved in the encounter was undrafted Isles prospect Michael Haley. After being separated from the original fight, the 24-year-old skated the length of the ice and challenged the aforementioned goaltender Brent Johnson.

Johnson would shed all necessary equipment, but before any one-on-one could occur, enforcer Eric Godard jumped off the Penguins bench and restrained Haley as he and Johnson pounded away.

Called up from Bridgeport earlier that afternoon, Haley compiled a goal and 38 minutes in penalties in just 4:05 of ice time—an assist short of the score sheet accomplishment named after Gordie Howe.

With that kind of bang-for-your-buck excitement every time Haley jumped over the boards, it’s not hard to see this player could become a cult hero on Long Island. 

Somewhat surprisingly, Haley did not receive a suspension from the NHL. 

Eventually the secondary action would be broken up, and it was known that Godard would receive an automatic 10-game suspension for his troubles. A head coach can be fined or suspended whenever a player leaves the bench to engage in a fight, but Dan Bylsma was not the subject of any supplemental action by the NHL. 

A few other skirmishes would occur, including another attempt to get after Max Talbot this time by Isles middleweight Zenon Konopka, but the true ugly displays of the game were over.

While it is refreshing to see some “old time” hockey at the highest level yet again, what isn’t encouraging is the manner in which Martin and, in particular, Gillies handled themselves during the game.

The NHL has been on a campaign to curtail two types of dirty actions, hits from behind and blows to the head, and Martin committed two of those actions in one sequence. Gillies' actions were downright unsportsmanlike to say the very least and the nine-game suspension levied to him is undoubtedly justifiable. 

Godard was subject to an automatic 10-game suspension and, just by reading newspaper headlines, one would assume he was the most egregious offender in this game.

However, Godard came to the defense of his goaltender, who really had no need to be in a fight. The NHL set a precedent against coming off the bench some time ago, and it is difficult to call Godard’s actions justified especially with Penguins personnel already on the ice able to intervene.

What yells out the most is the $100,000 fine charged to the New York Islanders organization. NHL discipline overlord Colin Campbell cited the Isles “failure to control their players” in why the fine was levied.

Fining a team as a whole a large sum hopefully sets a new precedent when multiple transgressions are committed in one game. This was the perfect circumstances due to the Islanders’ inability to look the other way. 

With the current wave of games breaking out with multiple fights a lot felt the NHL needed to make a statement. However, suspending Godard the minimum amount and giving Gillies a nine-game suspension—something that won’t make much of a difference to the Islanders roster—shows very little that the NHL will be attempting to deter this behavior in the future. 

In fact, in the official NHL press release Martin was labeled as a “repeat offender.”

If he is a repeat offender, shouldn’t he be suspended for a longer amount for an action that could cause a serious injury? 

The substantial fine to the Islanders speaks for itself, but in reality little hurt is placed on the team roster given some of the disgraceful events Friday night. 

The NHL has only handed out elongated suspensions when pressured to do so by writers, analysts and opinion leaders alike. Obviously, enough noise was not made here by those people for the NHL to listen and give out a headline-grabbing disciplinary action.

In all, the NHL did not choose to turn away from these incidents, but to deal with them like most issues that require supplemental discipline—to go with the opinion flow and not make any statements nor make an example of any one player or action.