Rangers F Byers suspended; coach Tortorella fined

Yankee fans ~~ you won the World Series. This is the NHL and not MLB.

Avery has taken so many cheap shots on goaltenders and smaller players that the officials are not too concerned about what happens to him. Unfortunately for him, the national sports media saw that the cheap shots could be inflamatory and generate ratings. Officials watch games on the tube, and they also watch the sportscasts to see if they are being libelled. They see his A-Game, and then if things happen in a game, they tend to see it as payback because Avery must have done something to provoke it.

If Avery wants some of his abuse called...he needs to stop hitting goaltenders from behind. He has to stop crosschecking after the whistle the skill players on the other team.

If Avery was playing against the Oilers in their heyday...he would be having a face-to-face with Semenko in the first period. Lumley in the second period. Semenko again at the start of the third period. These would have happened while he was still fifty feet away from Gretzky. No way they ever let anyone run Gretzky after the whistle.

If he tried his behind hit on Billy Smith, he would find that they do not have enough thread in NYC to sew him up.

The Rangers played a halfhearted game, and they lost because they did not put out the effort. If the Yankees put in the effort in the World Series that the Rangers put into their hockey games ~~ the Phillies would be having the parade/

oh, by the way, you all need to watch Pavel Bure - "the mother of all elbows"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZCuZ5UWEV0
besides that hit... Mitchells hit against that toews kid in chicago put this little scrum into perspective. ;-) the one being...bure's hit was illegal, mitchells was clean. personally, i preferred bure's. xD

First hockey game I ever saw on TV was Vancouver vs NYR Game 7. I picked Vancouver as my team, been cheering them on ever since. Most the time I cheered against the Rangers, but I kind of like them this year... except for the game against the Canucks, in which case, w00t.

Bettman is a joke. I watched this game and replayed most the goings on with my dvr and nothing warranted ANY suspensions! Let alone sticking them to one team when both sides were equally involved. The only thing even close to meriting a suspension would have been the chump spearing Avery over the bench for all to see. It seems Bettman is trying to change the game to suck in the fringe public and make more $$$$, like NASCAR is, and I think they are seeing it is a mistake.

The Rangers are not good...at all. I would love to see them deal some of the guys who will never amount to anything--yes thats you Dubinski

Guy F, were you watching the same game everyone else was watching? first off when you are on the bench you cannot take your stick and use it to reach across to the other teams bench and JAB a player with it multiple times.....

vancover was all over gaborik, but not always clean. many times he was hit off the play and knocked down to the ice when the play was no where near him. So I could imagine why he might be frustrated.


how about the slew foot on redden along the boards right before the first goal was scored?

Shane O got a game too...Yahoo! Sports (the mecca for updated hockey info) just has not posted Vancouver's suspension in this article.

Leave fighting alone geeze already bring back 70;s hockey

Where was this quote instagator rule when anaheim jump the red wings in the playoffs last year.
But I guess that is the new nhl selective discipline.

Tom's the only one who's got it right - Byers suspension is for getting an instigator penalty as part of his fight with Tanner Glass at 18:50 of the 3rd period - not for anything to do with the earlier Kesler - Gaborik melee. The rule basically states any player who takes an instigator in the last 5 minutes of the 3rd period will be suspended for the next game and his coach will be fined $10,000.

The suspension and fines are for a last minute instigator when down multiple goals. It's automatic once an instigator is called in that situation.

Bull@#$%. Bettman has ruined the game.

The suspension and fines are for a last minute instigator when down multiple goals. It's automatic once an instigator is called in that situation.

I really don't see what the fuss is all about. Ryan Kesler, this year's Selke winner btw, owned Gabby all night. Gaborik crosschecked him because he was frustrated, Kesler gave him a little stick in retaliation, the Rangers then swarmed Kes because he was messing with their star player. That's to be expected, no big deal. No one deserved a suspension out of this. O'Brien and Avery are both yappers who have trouble controlling their tempers and often take dumb penalties. They got into a little something at the bench; O'Brien tapped Avery with his stick, Sean snatched away, Shane got tossed. Done and done. How the league determined anything from last night was suspension-worthy is beyond me.

I'm going to guess the Tortorella fine was for letting ten guys out on the ice for the shovematch. O'Brien should have been fined and maybe suspended. What exactly did Byers do to warrant the suspension?

tapping someone on the arm isn't exaclty what I would lable as "spearing" ha ha that's so funny you guys are calling it spearing. Regardless, it's not right, but certainly not worse than 5 vs 1 NYR trying to gangbang Kessler. There should be more fines and more suspensions. Fines handed down so far are automatic no review required to instigating in the last 5 min of a game.

1_9_9_4!!!!!!
Wait till they are in NY.

the NHL IS OUT OF CONTROL . FIRE BETTMAN ASAP all the owners HAVE to get together and get rid of this cancer before this spreads through out the league.with the suspension / fines for playing the game game hard its just unwatchable.


with the speed of the game and the skill of all these players the rink needs to be bigger before the whole league gets injured.

It's hilarious how the canucks player doesn't get a fine or suspension for tapping/hitting avery with his stick.. like others said, if it wasn't against avery action would have been taken but whats with the prejudice against avery here? i know hes a douchebag but regardless he's a player and should be treated equally when it comes to getting penalized or players getting penalized because of him.

we got spanked last night ,but that spearing onthe bench was just mind boggling.if it wasnt avery,the guy would have gotten suspended.sean uses his mouth,theres no place for that crap in our great game!

Nothing Kesler did to Gaborik warranted a penalty. The Rangers should've got the extra 2 for having thier whole team swarm Kesler. Tortorella shouldn't be fined anything. I wish we had a bench clearing brawl, because the Nuks would own NYR, especially without Brashear. Avery would probably try and fight Samuelsson or Bernier or something though. Man, he's a @#$%.

Torts Gets 10k fine for what?!?!? Suppose he shoulda hop the boards and pulled Bryers off the ice. What a joke!! NHL is just keeps getting better under that commissioner. They need money to purchase Coyots, No suspensions no fines handed out to two jerkoffs for spearing while on the bench on the Canuck team.

the canucks fans are still pissed about '94 haha

finally a ranger stickin up for a team mate instead of skateing away