There’s a lot going on in the chaotic video below of a series of KHL brawls that resulted in 691 penalty minutes and caused the game to be called less than four minutes in when both teams ran out of eligible players. (As opposed to our well-oiled North American league, where games are suspended when the lights in the arena go out.) The strangest sight in the clip might be the players casually leaving the penalty box in a single-file line to join in the fray. But not far behind is the sight of former Ranger Jaromir Jagr, now a member of Avangard Omsk, dropping the gloves. It’s sort of like watching a kangaroo drive a car: He doesn’t even have a player card on the invaluable HockeyFights.com, so this is a pretty rare occurrence.
Jagr was good and pissed off after the game, specifically at Darcy Verot, who started this whole mess during warm-ups by intentionally shooting a puck at one of Jagr’s teammates. Jagr said that Verot sucker-punched him after telling him they wouldn’t actually fight, and suggested that the KHL better regulate fighting. But most interesting is this quote from Jagr:
“I don’t even know what to call this person. I played with Sean Avery when I was with the New York Rangers. A lot was said about him. But he was an ordinary tough guy. He followed the code. As for Verot, he doesn’t even know what this code is.”
We can’t say we remember Verot from his NHL days — he played 37 games for Washington, pre-lockout — but that he makes Sean Avery look ordinary would suggest that Jagr is right when he says a word to describe such a player doesn’t exist.
Russian Hockey League Is Gonna Need A Bigger Penalty Box [Deadspin]
KHL hands out fines, suspensions for brawl; Jagr reacts [Puck Daddy/Yahoo]