Dallas Stars defenceman John Klingberg wasn’t impressed with Rasmus Andersson‘s actions after both were given a game misconduct for being the second fight on the ice at the end of the first period of their playoff series opener on Tuesday — and he issued a warning to the Calgary Flames blue-liner afterward.
Calgary’s Matthew Tkachuk was fighting Michael Raffl of the Stars before the fight between the two Swedish defencemen started.
“I’m not saying I’m a tough guy, but he’s acting tougher than he is,” Klingberg said after the Flames’ 1-0 win. “I feel like he’s the one guy there in the scrum who doesn’t have a guy. I’m standing there with (Blake) Coleman and he’s standing and shaking his gloves to me like ‘you want to go against me.’ Probably the least fighter on our team on the ice there. I’m skating over to him and dropping my gloves and I want to go but he’s just standing there two seconds and then all of a sudden he drops the gloves.
“He’s acting a little tougher than he is and we’re going to go after him.”
Rule 46.7 in the NHL rulebook states: “A game misconduct shall be imposed on any player who is assessed a major penalty for fighting after the original altercation has started.”
The fights started after a big hit by Tkachuk on Klingberg.
Klingberg had six goals and 41 assists in 47 games this season, while Andersson had four goals and 46 assists in 82 games.
