Vancouver Canucks center Rick Rypien gets a six-game suspension for grabbing an obnoxious Minnesota Wild fan by his jersey as he was leaving the ice after receiving a game misconduct penalty. James Engquist, his antagonist, gets an apology, an invitation to dinner and some game tickets from National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman.
Engquist was unhappy with the suspension and told Charley Walters of the Pioneer Press that Rypien should have been fired for grabbing him. "In normal society, minimally, you'd be fired from the NHL." Engquist is also considering a lawsuit against Rypien.
What was Engquist doing standing over the runway in the middle of the game as Rypien was headed for the dressing room? Why wasn’t he in his seat? There’s only one reason Engquist left his seat for the runway and that was to get up close enough to Rypien so that the ejected player would be sure to hear his taunts.
As I said, there should be some way to punish a fan who is so obnoxious as to provoke retaliation by a player. Instead, NHL commissioner Bettman rewards the asshole handsomely. Rypien was clearly wrong in grabbing Engquist and deserved a suspension, but reward the fan who went out of the way to provoke him? Shame, shame on Gary Bettman!
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