For those of us in the Boston area we all remember a well known rant by former Celtics Coach Rick Pitino. It went something like, "Larry Bird isn’t walking through that door, Kevin McHale isn’t walking through that door. It gets played constantly on sports radio, and was pretty much the end of Pitino’s days as the Celtics Bench Boss. What does this have to do with hockey fights? Glad you asked.
Friday night was spent up at the Tsongas Arena in Lowell watching yet another lackluster Lockmonster performance. At the end of the game, Keith Aucoin starts a shoving match with Sound Tiger, Dave Karpa. It escalated quickly, probably due to Aucoin’s smart mouth. Karpa wound up throwing about five right hands to Aucoin. It looked like a line brawl was about to happen because as Karpa was lowering the boom on Smart Mouth Aucoin, the other eight guys on the ice were all locked up. It was a typical post game dust up we have all seen a million times. The stripes got in there, and everyone was separated. The near brawl took place right against the visitors entrance doors, and off to the right of where I was sitting. Being right there at the gate, one linesman got Karpa, and another Sound Tiger off the ice, as the other linesman escorted Smart Mouth Aucoin toword his own bench. Now, as this was happening, the fracas in the corner heated up again, and the linesman that was Smart Mouth’s date, left him alone to try and break it up. This left Smart Mouth all alone in front of the Bridgeport Bench.
I noticed out of the corner of my left eye as the pushing and shoving heated up again to my right, that Smart Mouth wasn’t preceding to his bench. In fact, he had stopped directly in front of the Sound Tiger Bench, doing his best John Wensink impression. He was standing there with his arms out to his sides, palms up, in the universal "I don’t give a fuck, let’s go" stance. No one on Bridgeport’s Bench moved. Someone did, however, reach out with the butt end of their stick and try to poke Keith Wensink with it. That drew a crowd, and Wensink was almost pulled into the Bridgeport Bench. That drew the attention of the other nine guys on the ice, and all the officials, as they all converged at the visiting Bench. At this time, Karpa, and the other Sound Tiger that were pushed off the ice earlier, got back on the ice. A major no no. It was then that I said out loud, "Holy Shit, these benches are both going to empty."
One of the linesmen grabbed Keith Smart Mouth Aucoin Wensink, and pulled him to the Lowell Bench. Lockmonster Coach Tom Rowe, came on the ice and was pulling guys to his bench. I thought that wasn’t the best move for Coach Rowe, as he got in a lot of trouble in Norfolk for being on the ice during a post period brawl last season. Eventually things got calm, and I left my seat to talk it over with others on what they had seen.
No one was assessed any penalties (not even Karpa, and the other Tiger that came back on the ice were assessed anything. A major oversight in my mind.) It got me thinking how Aucoin started the whole thing. I think he is incredibly mouthy, and a really big punk. I don’t have a problem with it, save for the fact that he can’t back any of it up. I also think he’s going to get his head kicked in one day in Lowell. Last season he could be a mouthy punk, and he had Colton Orr, and Brendan Walsh to back him up. Who’s he got this year? Exactly. No one. These two Teams lock horns again in February. I hope someone runs Smart Mouth Wensink right through the boards.
