Darnell Nurse suspended 3 games for pummeling opponent in 'fight'
Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse has been suspended three games for repeatedly punching an unwilling and unsuspecting opponent in a "fight" on Tuesday night.
By
Adam Gretz
•
3 min read
Late in the Edmonton Oilers' loss to the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night, rookie defenseman Darnell Nurse jumped Sharks defenseman Roman Polak in front of the team's bench and left him a bloody mess after repeatedly punching him in the face.
On Thursday, the NHL announced that Nurse has been suspended three games for being the aggressor in the fight (if you can even really call it a fight).
Polak was in the process of trying to head to the bench for a line change when Nurse dropped his gloves, grabbed Polak, and started punching him. In the NHL's suspension video, where the department of player safety was extremely harsh on Nurse, the league called it a "gross violation of rule 46.2, serving as the aggressor of an altercation."
More from the video explanation:
"Nurse continues to throw punches in an attempt to inflict punishment on an opponent who is in a defenseless position or who is an unwilling combatant. It is important to note that at no point during this altercation does Polak drop his gloves, throw a punch, or do anything other than attempt to defend himself from the attack."
The league estimates that Nurse managed to throw and land around eight punches as Polak attempted to protect himself.
Here is the entire video.
According to the NHL rule book, rule 46.2 states the following:
The aggressor in an altercation shall be the player who continues to throw punches in an attempt to inflict punishment on his opponent who is in a defenseless position or who is an unwilling combatant. A player must be deemed the aggressor when he has clearly won the fight but he continues throwing and landing punches in a further attempt to inflict punishment and/or injury on his opponent who is no longer in a position to defend himself. A player who is deemed to be the aggressor of an altercation shall be assessed a major penalty for fighting and a game misconduct. A player who is deemed to be the aggressor of an altercation will have this recorded as an aggressor of an altercation for statistical and suspension purposes. A player who is deemed to be both the instigator and aggressor of an altercation shall be assessed an instigating minor penalty, a major penalty for fighting, a ten-minute misconduct (instigator) and a game misconduct penalty (aggressor).
There were several issues with the entire thing and the way it was called on the ice where the officials really dropped the ball.
First, at the league points out in its video, Polak was clearly an unwilling participant in the fight. He never managed to get his gloves off, never threw a punch, and was somehow still given a five-minute major for fighting. Nurse was given a five-minute major for fighting and a two-minute minor for roughing, while the Sharks were given a two-minute minor penalty for abuse of officials and had the would-be power play negated.
It was also clearly Nurse's of way of trying to deliver some sort of payback late in a game on Polak after he was involved in a collision with Oilers forward Matt Hendricks just a few minutes earlier (Polak was given a minor penalty for interference, but it was an innocent play that had an unfortunate result for Hendricks as he went into the boards).
Nurse also avoided an instigator penalty which would have resulted in an automatic suspension of at least one game.
Just because the officials messed up didn't mean the league had to ignore, and instead he is going to miss three games.
