Fighters are known for their brawn, not their brains, and tonight at the XCel Center in Minnesota Rick Rypien made reinforced the old axiom. Vancouver was trailing Minnesota 5-1 in the second period when Rypien tried to "energize his team" as the announcers say, and picked a fight with Brad Staubitz. Nathan Eide from Hockey Wilderness explains the rest:
Rick Rypien Assaults Fan In Minnesota
...after being pulled off of Brad Staubitz in a pathetic attempt to motivate the Vancouver Canucks, tussled with linesman Don Henderson, initiating contact, then jumping at a fan in the stands who was sarcastically clapping at him.
Video of the incident courtesy of Nathan at Hockey Wilderness:
It looks as if though Rypien engaged with a minor, or possibly a slightly-built person, but reports are that it was a minor and the family was moved to a suite in the building.
Rypien was given a misconduct, not a game misconduct, even with the referee contact. It’s all but assured that Rypien will be forced to go before Colin Campbell before the end of the week, and Twitter and message boards are already speculating as to Rypien’s punishment. Comparisons to Ron Artest’s 73-game suspension for starting a brawl in the stands in Detroit have been made and Canucks fans are split between applauding Rypien’s actions and wondering if he’ll even be allowed on the plane back to Vancouver.
See More:
