Larry Brooks

Larry Brooks

NHL

Wild goalie brawl a by-product of permissive NHL

This couldn’t be more beautiful for the NHL, whose official record of Friday night’s fiasco in Philadelphia will forevermore contain the designation of Ray Emery as the third star of the Flyers’ 7-0 loss to the Capitals.

That would be the performance in which Emery, the Flyers’ backup goaltender, clattered approximately 180 feet down to the ice early in the third period to vent his frustrations and fists against Washington netminder Braden Holtby after having allowed four goals on 15 shots in 22:27.

This is the culture in Philadelphia of which owner Mr. Ed Snider is so proud and protective. An unprovoked third period fight between a goaltender a touchdown behind and one pitching a shutout. Who ever would believe such a thing could occur with Prof. Craig Berube behind the bench?

It is difficult to conjure the scenario under which Emery would be suspended. There’s no mechanism under which the NHL would seem to have the authority to discipline the goaltender beyond the instigator, misconduct and fighting penalties assessed at the time on the ice under Rule 46. The last thing the league needs is VP Brendan Shanahan to go rogue and apply punishment without the express authority to do so.

If the NHL allows, endorses and promotes fighting, this is the type of fight the league and all of the pro-fisticuffs crowd is going to get from time to time. The “I like fighting, but not this kind” protestations in the wake of incidents such as this are hilarious.

Fighting is not the chivalrous act that so many of its defenders claim. Of all the reason players fight, “frustration,” “embarrassment” and “sending a message” are at the top of the list.

“They’re sending a calling card!” one of the Flyers’ announcers uttered excitedly during the four-ring circus of fights that included the Emery attack on Holtby. A calling card to whom? The Devils, for Saturday night’s game?

Emery went the length of the ice to fight a barely willing combatant because he still can in a league dominated by a thought process out of the 1950s. It was a calling card, don’t you know, just the way the designation of Emery as third star by a Philadelphia writer is a snapshot of the NHL in 2013-14.

Credit is due general manager Garth Snow and the Islanders’ organization for their willingness to enter into risk/reward territory with the exchange of Matt Moulson for Thomas Vanek, even eliminating the draft picks going to Buffalo.

But the upside seems relatively limited given the two wingers’ equivalent productions starting with the 2009-10 season (Moulson 120 goals, 0.39 per game; Vanek 110 goals, 0.39 per contest) and the risk enhanced given the fraternal relationship on and off the ice between Moulson and franchise player John Tavares.

Snow might have sent an important message to his team — calling card! — that no job is safe, but the GM pretty much exchanged a strength for a strength without addressing his team’s weakness on defense and question mark in goal.

What possibly could be the justification in Edmonton, where goaltenders Devan Dubnyk, Jason LaBarbera and Richard Bachman have combined for a dramatically deficient .882 save percentage that has undermined Dallas Eakins’ first month behind an NHL bench, for not offering a contract to free agent Ilya Bryzgalov?

Surviving the goalie nuthouse in Philadelphia should be endorsement enough of Bryzgalov, who sure doesn’t need (and isn’t seeking) a fortune to sign after having been bought out by the Flyers this summer for $23 million over the next 14 years.

When, exactly, did Travis Zajac become such an ordinary player? When Zach Parise left to go home to Minnesota? No, earlier than that.

Watching Ryan Miller Thursday at the Garden keeping his frightfully undermanned Sabres in the match against the Rangers, as was Don Waddell, the former Thrashers’ GM who is on the Team USA Olympic selection committee, the thought occurs the job in goal for the Yanks in Sochi still is likely Silver Miller’s to lose before L.A.’s Jonathan Quick can win it.

The suggestion was made in this space years ago, but to reiterate: When a player is suspended, his team should lose a spot in the lineup for the duration of the sentence; two players at the same time would equal the loss of two spots.

Plus this: A player’s suspension should be amended to include any and all remaining games that season against the club of the player he fouled.

Meaning, for instance, a) the Sabres would have been able to dress only 16 skaters during Patrick Kaleta’s and John Scott’s coincidental suspensions; and, b) Kaleta would be suspended for the remaining 2013-14 regular-season games against the Blue Jackets, and for all of which Buffalo would be forced to dress 17 skaters.

Early leader for the NHL’s newest award, The Ovechkin, for starring at both wings: Brad Richards.