Toronto's HOW far away?

Alright, I watch a lot of hockey and I've seen a lot of things, but this is ridiculous.



The line brawl is nothing particularly new, but what Johnathan Roy does certainly is. Personally, I find fighting in hockey to be ridiculous and appealing to the lowest common denominator to begin with, but the fact is that it remains a "part of the game". That being said, fighting in hockey tends to be governed by the "unwritten rules" - accordingly, you'll generally see the "winner" of a fight stop pummeling his opponent when he gets him to the ground, and maybe he'll give him a nice bum pat at the end.

What runs through your mind when you've been held back by the referees from skating the length of the ice to fight the opposing goaltender, so you wait until they're preoccupied with something else and charge on down to take on a guy leaning against his net with absolutely no desire to fight? Roy pulls Nadeau's helmet off, and Nadeau instantly tries to i) protect the face; and ii) turtle. Nadeau is on the ground, doing everything he can to try and get into a position where his face isn't getting pounded (you can see him try to bring his legs up, but it's more than a little impossible wearing pads) and Roy just keeps going. I understand why the linesman tackles the Chicoutimi player that tries to come in to protect his goaltender, but I almost wish he doesn't...it's awful to watch what Roy is doing. The parting shot he gives Nadeau (he stops punching for a couple seconds, as if thinking about it, and then lays a final one down) makes me want to kick his ass myself all the more. Then you have Roy whooping it up for the crowd like he's some kind of heavyweight champion - dude, you fought a guy whose only goal was to try to curl up into the fetal position as quickly as possible. Some "victory"! The whole thing is just...unbelievable.

There's talk that Patrick Roy (the hall of fame goaltender, also Jonathan's father and coach) had some kind of role in what played out on the ice. While it's certainly true that the elder Roy got into a whole lot of drama while he was a player, I can't ever recall a similar situation that he was involved in. Sure, he fought Oz, Mike Vernon, possibly some others, but those situations really don't compare. We're also talking about a 19 year old kid; sure, his Dad/coach has influence over him, but he also has free will and the ability to think for himself. I mean, if Patrick Roy admits to, or we get video evidence, or testimony from others that he was sitting there yelling something along the lines of "John, you get down there and kick his ass or I will disown you AND kick you off this team", then yeah, he certainly gets some of the responsibility. Otherwise, I'm more than willing to think that Johnathan Roy either lost his mind or did not have one to begin with.

Enjoy your 15 minutes of fame; I'm fairly certain that your 8-7-0 record and 4.22 GAA aren't getting you anywhere fast.