Dobson nets sixth goal of season
Summerside native has 37 points
Toronto centre Nazem Kadri may have got off lightly for grabbing Joe Thornton’s beard in Thursday night’s shootout win over the San Jose Sharks.
For one, he survived a tilt with a much bigger man with only some facial swelling. But he also escaped further punishment for getting his hand tangled in Thornton’s mountain-man beard, pulling out a chunk of hair in the process. On the plus side for Thornton, the Sharks star would have had to shave before fighting had he been in the UFC. Asked whether the rule book covered beard-pulling, the NHL pointed to Rule 75.2 (ii) which says:
“Any player who is guilty of unsportsmanlike conduct including, but not limited to hairpulling, biting, grabbing hold of a face mask, etc. If warranted, and specifically when injury results, the referee may apply Rule 21 - Match Penalties.” Both combatants only got fighting majors.
It appears the referees decided the beard interaction was unintentional. Or perhaps, like everyone else watching, it just took a while to figure out what had just happened.
The fight occured two seconds into the game. Kadri said Thornton challenged him after the two were tossing out of the opening faecoff following a nasty slashing exchange. Kadri, who was giving up at least four inches and 30 pounds to the 38-year-old Thornton, appeared to be trying to grab a handful of his sweater but got beard instead - unintentionally, he said later.
“I mean he’s a big boy.” he said of the six-foot-four Shark. “I couldn’t reach all the way across his shoulder. I felt like I just grabbed him in the middle of his jersey and just came down with a handful of his hair.” “I thought I was a hockey player not a barber,” he added with a chuckle
The damage appeared to be done as Thornton lost his balance and went down, with Kadri still attached to his beard.
The dislodged hair landed on the ice and the mini-tumbleweed was eventually handed over to the Sharks bench, presumably for safe-keeping. Thornton, who didn’t speak after the game, has been in beard brouhahas before.
In the 2015-16 playoffs, he and St. Louis centre David Backes each grabbed the other’s beard during an altercation that saw no punches thrown.
“Just seeing if it was glued on well. It checked out,” Backes said later.
Thornton has been in 29 fights in his 21-year career, according to hockeyfights.com. Kadri has been involved in six during his nine years in the league. Noah Dobson of Summerside netted his sixth goal of the 201718 Quebec Major Junior Hockey League regular season on Friday night. The defenceman scored a first-period goal on the power play for the Acadie-Bathurst Titan in a 5-4 loss to the BaieComeau Drakkar. Dobson, who has registered 31 assists, enters Saturday’s game in Moncton against the Wildcats with 37 points in 39 regular-season games.