By now you’ve heard and seen everything that happened in the wild Red Wings-Flames game Wednesday night, in which the two teams combined for 111 penalty minutes and five game misconducts.
The last half of the third period was particularly wild, with a mini-line brawl breaking out when Matthew Tkachuk tapped Luke Witkowski with his stick after the Wings forward had left the ice following a fight. Witkowski returned to the ice, which may lead to a suspension under Rule 70.6, but Wings coach Jeff Blashill thought Witkowski could have made the situation much worse.
“I’d say he was about one step off as Tkachuk hit him with his stick from behind and he took one step back on and nothing happened,” the Wings coach said on Hockey Central at Noon. “From Witkowski’s side I don’t think it was anything…
“I think Luke could have made it way worse and chose not to.”
There’s little doubt that Tkachuk’s stick tap is what set off the melee, but we should point out Witkowski didn’t play a large role in it. While he did return to the ice for a quick second, when linesman Scott Driscoll got in Witkowski’s face and forced him back off, he walked down the tunnel and wasn’t involved as the situation got worse again on the ice.
The Red Wings won the game easily 8-2, which must have had something to do with the upbeat attitude in the room afterwards. But while fighting doesn’t have the same place in the NHL today that it used to, the Wings coach mentioned that nights and events like this one on Wednesday still serve a purpose.
“It can create bonding for sure,” Blashill said. “There’s something to be said for making sure you don’t get pushed around. I’m a big believer in you have to fight for your teammates and that isn’t always physically fighting, it’s making sure you’re sticking up for each other.
“I thought at the end of last year we were out of it for the first time in a long time and to some degree we let it happen. To some degree we let ourselves get pushed around and I think something we talked lots about is making sure we draw a line in the sand and say ‘we’re not going to get pushed.’
“I think it’s important for our team to know that when people bump our goalies a couple times there could be a consequence. When people take runs at some of our young players there could be a consequence.
“I think it’s a way different game for sure, but you have to look after each other.”
The most surprising player involved in the fracas was Detroit’s goalie Jimmy Howard, who doubled his penalty minute total from last season just in Wednesday’s game. Before taking an unsportsmanlike penalty in the brawl, Howard was assessed a slashing penalty on Tkachuk, who he thought pushed his own defenceman into him.
Given the time Howard had to miss last season from a lower-body injury sustained when teammate Nick Jensen and Lightning forward Erik Condra fell on top of him, he took exception to Tkachuk’s shove and found a chance to send his own message.
“Jimmy’s got lots of fire in him and that’s not always shown externally, but he’s got lots of fire in him,” Blashill said. “He was pretty upset…He had a good mentor I guess in (Chris Osgood) and he had his own moment.”
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