So Both teams square off and fight immediately. Refs eject everyone but the enforcers for both teams . Then the head coach of one team tries to go into the locker room of the other during intermission. This is pathetic.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- The Canucks and Calgary Flames engaged in a wild first-period brawl Saturday night which later carried over to Canucks coach John Tortorella being involved in an altercation in the hallway outside of the Flames' dressing room.

The opening minutes of the NHL game, which the Canucks won 3-2 in a shootout, was like a scene from the movie "Slap Shot."

It brought back memories of when teams such as the Broad Street Bullies and Big Bad Boston Bruins hit the ice.


"I don't think anybody expected that," said Flames defenseman Chris Butler, one of eight players ejected from the game.

"It's been a while since something like that happened, five guys pairing off."

A league official told ESPN.com on Sunday morning the incident is being investigated by the NHL.

"Details when and if appropriate," the source said.

The bad blood wasn't confined to the ice. At the end of the first period CBC, which televised the game, captured Tortorella attempting to go into the Flames locker room at Rogers Arena. Calgary enforcer Brian McGrattan pushed him away.

Flames goaltender coach Clint Malarchuk came out of the Flames dressing room after Tortorella and McGrattan were separated. Malarchuk followed Tortorella, but was restrained by several members of Calgary's staff and McGrattan.

Much of the altercation appeared off camera, but another camera showed Vancouver defenseman Chris Tanev pulling teammate Alex Burrows back toward the Canucks' dressing room.

Flames coach Bob Hartley was left shaking his head over Tortorella charging his team's dressing room.

"I just don't understand," he said. "I got out of there. I don't need to get suspended or fined.

"There is nothing to be settled there. I just don't understand what was going on."

The Flames raised a red flag by putting their fourth line on the ice to start the game. The Canucks countered with their tough guys.

Game on.

Defenseman Kevin Bieksa took the opening draw for Vancouver and a line brawl broke out as soon as the puck was dropped.

Just 2 seconds had ticked off the clock when all five skaters from each team taking the opening faceoff dropped their gloves and began throwing punches.

McGrattan was left bloodied in a fight with Vancouver tough guy Tom Sestito. After the fight Sestito patted McGrattan on the back of the head.

Minor league call-up Kellan Lain's first game as a Canuck was brief. He was tossed for fighting with Calgary's Kevin Westgarth, who has no points in 21 games for the Flames.

Also receiving game misconducts were Vancouver's Dale Weise plus defensemen Kevin Bieksa and Jason Garrison. For Calgary, it was Westgarth, Blair Jones, Ladislav Smid and Butler.

"They started their goon squad over there," said Sestito, who leads the NHL with 167 penalty minutes in 47 games. "I just don't think we're going to be backing down from guys.

"Torts told us they were starting their idiots over there so we had to match that."

“

Tortorella I'm not proud of it. I don't feel great about it at all.
” -- John Tortorella, Canucks coach

Sestito and McGrattan remained in the game.

In the aftermath of the brawl Tortorella could be seen yelling at the Flames' bench and Hartley.

"It's great that he has our back," Sestito said.

Later in the period, Calgary's Mark Giordano punched Burrows in the face. Burrows was wearing a facemask to protect a broken jaw. It was his first game since Dec. 1.

Tortorella made no apologies for the lineup he started.

"I know the other guy across the bench," he said. "It's easy for people to say, 'Well, put the Sedins out there and it's deflated.' I can't put our players at risk like that.

"With the lineup that he had, I'm not going to put those types of players at risk and that's what ensued. I'm not proud of it. I've apologized to every one of the players involved in it. I don't feel great about it at all."

Hartley also defended his starting lineup.

"Those guys are playing well for us," he said. "They got a goal last game. We're not scoring many goals. We had zero intentions there.

"As far as I know they were the home team. They had the luxury to put whoever they wanted on the ice."

The teams combined for 188 penalty minutes in the first period -- 142 penalty minutes in the first five minutes of the game and smaller skirmishes throughout the opening period. Calgary's Shane O'Brien and Vancouver's Zack Kassian each received 10-minute misconducts later in the period. A total of 204 penalty minutes were logged Saturday night.

Tortorella declined to answer questions about potential disciplinary actions, though it is safe to assume he will likely receive either a hefty fine, a suspension or both.

The fiery coach has been fined multiple times for some particularly colorful postgame tirades. He has also been suspended previously for throwing a water bottle at a fan during a game against the Washington Capitals in 2009.

This was not the first time Tortorella encountered a situation like Saturday night. He blasted Devils coach Pete DeBoer from the bench after DeBoer started his fourth line against Tortorella's Rangers in 2012, an uncannily similar incident in which Tortorella matched with his tough guys -- having rugged defenseman Stu Bickel take the opening draw -- and a line brawl ensued.

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That was ridiculous. All 10 were fighting.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Well at least they all got ejected.

NHL is tough on fighting.

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Sherman remarked, "Well, Grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?" Grant looked up. "Yes," he replied, followed by a puff. "Yes. Lick 'em tomorrow, though."

Huh?

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Sestito and McGrattan somehow got away with just a five for fighting and ten for misconduct. If you get into a fight after play stops for a fight, it's a five and the game, which is what the other eight got.

And yeah, this was pathetic and disgraceful. Funny how "this was pathetic and disgraceful" always accompanies Vancouver, John Tortorella, or now both.

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Nothing worse than these white thugs destroying the game...

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"You can kill the revolutionary, but you can't kill the revolution."

wah wah white people fighting

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Regular Season Canucks/Flames vs NFC Championship Game.

Yeah, I bet most people were watching the NHL.

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I hate the Canucks and Tortorella as much as anyone but Hartley deserves the lion's share of the blame for this one. Pure amateur nonsense, and the fact that he tries to play the victim or feign ignorance makes me all the happier that the Flames still ended up losing.

Jason Whitlock is a race troll

I think he might be an aspiring rapper also.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoYMetw0zRo

Blues "captain" David Backes jumping Nathan McKinnnon as revenge for a hit on Shattenkirk earlier in the game. Of course you have Jackman and his butt buddy Polak attempting to 2 on 1 a guy. Love Jackman throwing jabs at the Avs player's face in front of the official with a "what did I do?" dumb face.

This team cannot win the Cup. They are insufferable.

This is the hit pissing off Blues nation

Fucking hypocritical pansies

For once Bernstein was right when he said guys taking revenge for clean hits was idiotic.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

I don't like Patty Roy but he's right on .


ST. LOUIS -- After handing the St. Louis Blues a decisive 4-0 victory on the ice Saturday, the Colorado Avalanche continued the attack after the game, including coach Patrick Roy calling Blues captain David Backes "gutless."
Roy was upset about a hit by Backes on 18-year-old rookie Nathan MacKinnon with 5:17 to play in the game. Backes received minor penalties for roughing and cross-checking and a 10-minute misconduct on the play.
"To me, it's gutless," Roy said. "It shows what kind of a leader he is if you are going after an 18-year-old. He could have gone after (center Maxime) Talbot in the first. I was not very impressed -- gutless in my opinion."
The Blues were upset about what their perceived to be an unnecessary hit by Colorado left winger Patrick Bordeleau on defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk about three minutes earlier in the period.
"His own stick hit him in the nose," Roy said of Shattenkirk's bloody nose. "He was bleeding. He made a pretty big act, but unfortunately it was a stick. It was the right call by the referees."
The Avalanche jumped on the Blues for three goals in the span of 9:11 in the second period, with center Paul Stastny, who spent a lot of his childhood living in St. Louis, getting a power-play goal and an assist. He later added another assist on Colorado's final goal in the third period.
Stastny said he thought it was frustration on the part of the Blues that led to all of the skirmishes in the final period, which included a brawl with 2:08 to play resulting in nine players receiving misconduct penalties. The Blues already had lost Backes, left winger Brenden Morrow and defenseman Barret Jackman to similar penalties.
"You had one guy running around slashing everyone and another guy who jumped an 18-year-old," Stastny said. "We're going to stand up for each other and that's what we did."
Backes did not want to be dragged into a war of words with Roy and neither did Blues coach Ken Hitchcock.
"He's entitled to his opinion," Backes said. "That's OK."
Backes said he was upset by the hit on Shattenkirk and some "liberties" he thought Colorado's players were taking on the power-play.
"I dropped my glove, but I never threw a punch," he said. "It's frustration for a lot of guys. They (the Avalanche) jumped up (in the second period) and we didn't respond and kind of fell back on our heels. It was a game where we needed a great performance and we didn't get it, and they had it and they got the two points."
The bigger concern to Hitchcock was the fact his team is mired in a scoring slump. Even though the Blues won their previous two games, one win came in a shootout in a scoreless game in regulation and overtime and the other in which they scored one goal in the game's first 58 minutes.
"The league will deal with Bordeleau," Hitchcock said. "Down the line we'll answer. That's all the debris around the game. The thing I probably should have done was put (right winger Ryan) Reaves out there and made for even a bigger explosion. That's not the issue. The issue was we didn't score any goals. We didn't create enough offense in the second half of the game. We looked slow.
"When you are not scoring goals, it puts a lot of pressure on a lot of areas. We've got to look and be a lot more creative than we are from a goal-scoring standpoint."
Hitchcock would not discuss Roy's accusations against Backes.
"He can say whatever he wants," Hitchcock said. "He always has something to say after every game. You guys pick up what he wants. I'm worried about my team and the way we played."

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

Why do they keep pointing out that he's 18? Did they pull him from the stands prior to the game? If he's so young and brittle, why is he on the ice? Roy sounds like a bitch here.

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-- source

I would go with , if Backes is so tough and mean, why go after an 18 yr old? plenty of other guys on Colorado who'd be willing to step up to such a scary man but he chooses to pick on the youngest guy on team? He purposely chose the youngest guy on the team. Pretty gutless to me.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

I do think the acceptance of fighting in the NHL is absurd. If they really wanted to get rid of it, game suspensions or multi games should be levied.

Don't they suspend guys for launching on hockey hits?

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

Yes they do.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

Backes upset about other teams taking "liberties"?? Thursday afternoons at 5:00 asshole.

Reinforces what a bitch move Backes was pulling. If Backes was so upset about the Shattenkirk hit he could've found Bordeleau later in the game. MacKinnon's age further enforces what a chicken shit move Backes pulled by going after an uninvolved skill player to begin with.

If you're going to be a goon, be a goon. Punch a fucking 12 year old if you can. Good for Backes for pissing off Roy. Don't put an 18 year old on the ice if you don't want someone to run him.

Yeah Backes can run anyone he wants no doubt. Just like he can quite rightly be called a pussy for doing it to an 18 yr old rather than the several other grown ass men who would quite readily drop the gloves with him.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

If they really cared about the 18 year old they would have gone to the locker room to fight Backes, but they didn't. I call them pussies.

Excellent point.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.