Fighting Part II

A couple of days ago, I wrote about fighting (if you missed it, here) and that article was brought on by an unfortunate incident. I definitely wasn't planning on writing a fighting opinion piece at that time, and I certainly wasn't expecting to be writing a second part to it right now.

This time, let's look at the logic and opinions on coaches getting involved in the fights - whether vocally or physically or both.

Thank you to Patrick Roy for his antics that lead to this piece.

So read on.

Recap

The Anaheim Ducks and Colorado Avalanche opened up their seasons on October 2nd. Patrick Roy was making his NHL coaching debut in this game. The Ducks started off the game in control, but that quickly fell apart and the Avs were up 6-0 until just a few seconds before the final buzzer. Anaheim scores a goal with just seconds to spare to break the shutout. Even prior to this goal, the Avs were frustrated with a knee on knee collision that occurred between Ben Lovejoy and Nathan MacKinnon, as they felt that Lovejoy could have done more to avoid the incident. Everything started with that anger and the puck drop that followed the goal.
To line up for the puckdrop, Colorado put out Bordeleau, Mitchell, Hejda, Johnson and McLeod, while the Ducks lined up Beleskey, Fistric, Lovejoy, Bonino and Silfverberg. The puck gets dropped and Bordeleau goes after Beleskey. Fistric takes exception to seeing his team-mate get targeted and he goes after Bordeleau. That event lead to a scrum in front of the Avs bench that involved pretty much everyone on the ice. During this, Corey Perry leaned over the board and across the small stanchion and starts giving it to the Avalanche bench. Patrick Roy apparently didn't like seeing his players getting hell, and he started yelling expletives back at Perry. Bruce Boudreau had a serious problem with a coach yelling at his players, so he walked over towards the stanchion and started going at Roy. O'Reilly skates over to start chirping at Perry, Perry didn't like that so he grabbed his waterbottle and sprayed it at Roy and then at O'Reilly. While this all played out, Boudreau and Roy were still going back and forth, and Roy decided that he literally had to go at Boudreau and pushed on the glass stanchion. The stanchion moved significantly. The players on the Ducks bench pushed it back and then the refs and linesmen finally managed to break up the disaster. That was the end of that.
Except for when the Avs skated towards center ice to salute the fans, Bordeleau was waving his arms trying to pump up the crowd from the whole disaster.
Patrick Roy faced a $10,000 fine the following day.

The Fallout 
Starting post game comments started from players, coaches, fans, analysts and pretty much everyone in the hockey community. And it's safe to assume that these comments and criticisms are not going to be stopping anytime soon. Boudreau called Roy "bush league" for going after players. And Roy called Boudreau "classless" and a "liar" for the comments Boudreau had about Roy's antics. Yeah. So the war of words didn't end at the stanchion between those two.
Coaches around the league began commenting on the incident, all of then saying that Roy was out of line and that that is not what coaches are supposed to do. There was not a single comment made by players that approved of Roy's outburst - except for those from Avs players.
The Avalanche players were quoted later that night and the following day as praising him for be willing to do anything to stick up for his players. Protecting his players cost him $10,000. Typically when coaches get fined for certain incidents, the team absorbs the cost of the fine, however this one was coming straight out of Roy's pocket.

The Opinion 
Patrick Roy is a dumbass. What has to snap in someone's mind to feel that acting in a manner which will probably result in getting fined in the first game of your NHL coaching career is a good decision? Roy made a hell of an impression as a coach and certainly not in a good way.
That being said, there is nothing wrong with a coach defending his players when he feels that they have been wronged, in fact that's reasonably admirable. But Roy's approach to this was the wrong way to go about it. Coaches don't yell at players on the opposite team; they yell at their own players, their trainers, their staff, the refs, the fans, whatever. Yelling at players the way Roy was flipping shit at Perry is going too far and is beyond uncalled for.
Patrick Roy was quite well respected around the league from when he was a player, but his actions on Tuesday have lost him some respect from various people in the hockey community, ranging from fans to team executives.
And aside from Roy being selfish, impulsive, violent, ridiculous, immature, angry and irrational, there are a couple other things about the incident leading up to Roy's fit of rage that were wrong.
Now in all honesty, I was only half watching the game, so I didn't see the knee hit that the Avs were pissed off about. So I can't fairly comment on that aspect either way.
Bordeleau going after Beleskey was pointless. There were literally a handful of seconds remaining in the game, and when you decide to target someone in that time frame, there is no spark to be had, the message you intend to send is lost, and you look like an impulsive, emotional fool. So there's that.
Fistric going after Bordeleau in defense of Beleskey is pretty standard. The scrum that ensued is pretty normal. Perry leaning over and yelling at the bench is fair enough. O'Reilly coming to his coach's and team's defense is understandable.
Corey Perry spraying people with his waterbottle - no matter how hilarious it is - is immature and uncalled for, but not a violent action which makes it less of a focal point.
And Bordeleau's arm waving to pump up the crowd at the end of that all is absolutely uncalled for. There are guys in the league that do that following a fight to pump the home crowd and it is the most arrogant, rude, immature, attention seeking and cheeky thing that they can do. It's absolutely uncalled for and there is never a right time for it. Especially after your coach makes an ass out of himself and gets shooed off the bench. Do you really want the crowd cheering for that and endorsing any future behavior along those lines? Not a good idea.


Final Comment
It's a hell of a way to start an NHL coaching career by getting fined in your first game. I'm sure there is one person who is happy about it though. John Tortorella - the former angriest, most impulsive coach in the NHL.

Doesn't he look so angry? No, of course not because he's not Patrick Roy

(The pictures were shamelessly taken from Tumblr, thus making it difficult to trace it back to the original source, so I apologize for a lack of acknowledgement of the source)