Spitballin’ (or Super Pass It To Bulis: All In, if you love adventurous acronymizing) is a feature that allows us to touch on a multitude of things really fast, because in the world of hockey, there are always lots of things to find and colour. Here are a few quick topics.
There was no brawl
Before we really get into the brawl that served as epilogue to the Canucks' overtime win Monday night versus the Florida Panthers, a quick word on even calling it a brawl: no. This was no brawl.
The Canucks called it a melee. Fair. Brawls are, well, brawlier. No one squared off. There wasn't even a single takedown. At best, it was a skirmish or a tussle, as Dale Tallon and the Vancouver Sun's Cam Cole, who have seen their fair share of real hockey brawls over the years, were quick to point out:
What we had, after Daniel Sedin’s exaggerated, arms-up, in-your-face stare at the Florida bench following his game-winning overtime goal, was no brawl. It was a gathering of indignant people, a few of them shoving, one or two prodding with their sticks, another perhaps squirting a water bottle. And Derek Dorsett.
“Much ado about nothing,” said Florida GM Dale Tallon, on TSN 1040 radio. “It was like a baseball fight.”
Which is why I found it so funny that people were concerned about Colin Campbell being in charge of supplemental discipline following the incident. Supplemental discipline for what? Weak pushing and shoving? Yes, weak. I've seen more aggressive pushing and shoving during a middle school Valentine's Card exchange.
Denis Potvin is sorry
Speaking of much ado about nothing, Denis Potvin apologized Wednesday for his role in the whiole affair, as he overreacted to the non-brawl and said some bizarre things about the Sedins. First, he called Daniel Sedin a "lowlife" for staring down the Panthers' bench after the game-winner -- because nothing says lowlife like letting your play speak for itself. Then, he made this curious comment:
Perhaps, instead of calling Daniel's goal the game-winner, we should call it the bread-winner.
Anyway. Now Potvin is sorry. From a statement released through the Florida Panthers:
"My choice of words at the conclusion of the Vancouver game on Monday should have been more appropriate. In the passion of the moment and under the circumstances of how the game ended, they came out wrong. For that I'm going to extend my sincere apologies to Daniel Sedin, Trevor Linden and the Canucks organization."
I'm sure Daniel Sedin, Trevor Linden and the Canucks organization just feel so much better now. Probably they were losing sleep over this.
Part of me wishes Potvin hadn't apologized. Sure, he said some silly things, but for those of you expecting him to be unbiased as a journalist, I'd like to point out that this apology was released through the Panthers PR. Potvin works for the Panthers, not the New York Times. So it doesn't strike me as odd or unprofessional that he might be in the tank for his employers. Frankly, it seems odder to me when Sportsnet's John Garrett is in the tank for the Canucks, and no one seems to mind that.
Furthermore, were these comments really that hurtful? They were wrong, certainly. If you think Daniel Sedin of all people is low, you must be high. But who cares? If you think Daniel Sedin is troubled because the Panthers' in-house colour guy called him a name, followed by some colourful gibberish, you've lost it.
Heck, even Shawn Thornton doesn't owe Daniel an apology. If he really did say something to the effect of "same sisters", as Jason Botchford has reported, that's his right. Sure, it's dumb, unoriginal and sexist. But Shawn Thornton's never been Stephen Colbert. Plus players are going to talk trash. They're going to try to rattle and upset one another. These things might be kind of mean. Most of them are smart enough to know where the line is -- personal comments, usually -- as well as smart enough to know good, truly upsetting trash talk crosses the line. It's not called respectful talk.
Daniel Sedin is ice cold
And the best way to respond to guys playing these little games will always be to turn around and beat them at the big game. Daniel did that. So it seems to me that justice has already been served.
If anything in this whole incident disappoints me, it's the way people responded to Daniel Sedin's minor, minor, minor moment of grandstanding. He looked at the Panthers' bench for, like, a second. That's it. But that was enough for a few of them (as well as Potvin and others) to lose their minds like children sent to bed without dinner.
Juxtapose that with Daniel Sedin's classic chill: he's been hearing these "sisters" comments his whole career. He's rarely seemed rattled. But finally, one of these shots gets through to him and he responds by flipping the switch and winning the damn game. The Sedins have been nigh-unshakeable their entire careers. And now, it turns out, when you do manage to shake them, they just get better. That has to be infuriating.
Also infuriating is that Daniel didn't get any credit for that. Isn't this precisely what the great players do -- answer jabs with knockouts? This was a Hall of Fame player shutting down a tough guy with a show of a different kind of strength. Thornton crossed Daniel Sedin, and Daniel put a horse in his bed. How we overlooked the career-defining hockey moment at the centre of this incident is beyond me.
"Some people"
Why did this comment rankle so much? Hard to say, especially since no one will share precisely what was said. But Jason Botchford, who was given a vague impression of the comment, wants us to believe that, really, this whole thing has something to do with 2011. Shawn Thornton was in the Stanley Cup Final, he reminds us in a recent article, and so were the Sedins. Plus everyone still hates the Canucks, or whatever.
The relationship between the Sedins and Thornton drifts all the way back. Sometimes, it still feels, everything does.
At least, when something like this happens, it seems like so many people just snap back to where they were in the 2011.
And then Botchford talks about 2011 for awhile, and how the Canucks and Alex Burrows specifically are being disrespected by the national media, and how nobody noticed Burrows trying to get his teammates away from the scrum the other night. Then this, from the guy that brought up 2011 in the first place:
That was ignored by most the next day, because some people just can’t get over 2011.
Some people indeed.
