The ripple effects of Ray Emery’s No. 1 attack of Braden Holtby filtered to a minor Twitter skirmish between another NHL goaltender and a Canadian R&B singer Wednesday.
Juno-winning singer and host of BET’s 106 and Park Keshia Chante — an Ontario native and Ray Emery’s longtime girlfriend — took issue with comments Ottawa Senators goaltender Robin Lehner made Tuesday regarding her boyfriend.
Lehner voiced his displeasure with Emery’s antics to the Ottawa Sun and said he’d be in favour of an automatic suspension in such cases of “assault.”
“I can’t be down 7-0 and decide I’ll take a guy that can’t defend himself and pound him, I don’t think,” said Lehner. “I think I should get suspended if I do it. It’s assault – isn’t it?
“Maybe it’s not my business, but watching what happened to Holtby is disgusting. He didn’t want to [fight]. He wasn’t capable of it, but [Emery] pounded him and he kept pounding him and [Holtby] didn’t want to. He got his glove off to protect himself.”
Chante called Lehner an idiot; Lehner retweeted her and responded with a smiling, “I know. So what?”
Chante later deleted the original tweet.
And so it went:
Despite the digital jabs, goalie fights is a serious issue being discussed by the NHL’s general managers this week. A rule was brought up to punish goaltenders who crossed the centre red line to fight, as Emery did.
