Rick Rypien About to Meet His NHL Maker

The NHL has only a perceived image problem. The league is mocked in many circles because it only penalizes players five minutes for fighting, and that's just a way to glorify the fisticuffs. People make fun of hockey because it doesn't have great television ratings, even when the sport finds a way to beat out important events happening in baseball.

Part of the issue is that ESPN only talks about hockey when something bad happens.

So thanks, Rick Rypien, for giving ESPN something to talk about.

Rypien reached into the stands to grab a fan at Tuesday's game in St. Paul, where the Canucks were manhandled by the Wild, 6-2.

Perhaps Rypien was upset over losing a first-period fight to Wild enforcer Brad Staubitz.

Maybe he was ticked because the officials stepped in to prevent him from fighting Staubitz near the Wild bench.

It could have been that Rypien just didn't like that he could only get one cheap punch in on Staubitz before the two were fully separated.

No matter what, Rypien is about to face the music from the NHL. Here's the video.



Senseless, stupid, selfish, and completely out of control, Rypien didn't play again in the game -- a smart and classy move by the otherwise clueless Alain Vigneault, who acted after the game like he didn't know what happened, and who continues to start Roberto Luongo in games at the XCel Energy Center, despite an obvious hex on the otherwise All-World goalie.

Listen: There are things that could be said in defense of Rypien. Perhaps the X isn't constructed perfectly, getting the fans too close to the action. Perhaps that particular fan said something about Rypien's family that isn't fit for broadcast or publication.

But there is no excusing what the player did in this instance. There are zero circumstances where it is okay for a player to get physical with a fan like that. None. Not one.

When Packer safety Nick Collins threw his mouthguard into the stands and got into a shouting match with a fan who allegedly shouted racial slurs and spit at him, Collins could have (perhaps should have) at least been fined by the league.

In this case, there is nothing that indicates Rypien was provoked by spit. Or grabbing. Or anything but noise.

That can't be excused, and the NHL will not allow Rypien to skate (pun intented) from this incident. He's going to face a heavy punishment, and he should.

It's not about sending a message to players. There hasn't been a documented player-fan incident that got physical since 2000. No one is worried about this becoming a trend. Instead, a suspension is all about public relations.

This is going to send a message to the world that the NHL won't allow its fans to be accosted by players. They're not going to stand idly as players get too aggressive in their off-ice behavior.

Of course, no one who follows the game needs to be told this, but that doesn't mean the league won't try to make its point loud and clear.

I expect a 15-20 game ban, even though I'm not convinced it really needs to be more than ten.

If Rypien doesn't like it, perhaps he'll think twice before reaching out to grab a fan. Of course, he'll do that, anyway. Oh, well.

Before I wrap this up, here is the Canucks TV video of the incident.



Hilarious. There's being a homer, and there's being a blind homer. Remember, those two things are on completely different levels.

Hey, Dad, Can I Run On The Field?

Probably not a good idea. Even if you're not drunk.

Wayne Consalvi told the newspaper that his son was not drinking and he wasn't on drugs. Steve Consalvi is "a real good student, heading to Penn State," his father told the Philadelphia Daily News.

The father also told the newspaper that his son didn't run onto the field as a result of a dare or bet, either.

"I don't recommend running on the field, but I don't think they should have Tased him at all," he told the newspaper.

This Taser debate won't go away anytime soon, either.

Is this excessive force on a kid who did something stupid? Should police be more restricted in when they can use the device?

There are some who believe it's a deadly way to get a suspect on the ground. Others say it's not terribly harmful.

No matter what you think about the Taser itself, the fact it was used on a 17-year-old baseball fan who was likely not a threat to anyone is going to spark debate for a few days, at least.

Of course, that 17-year-old fan -- especially one smart enough to get into college -- should probably understand the fact that it's not legal to run on the field during a game, and we do usually (sometimes?) have consequences in this country for people who break the law.

In this kid's case, that punishment apparently includes embarrassment in front of 40,000 people, and later a national television audience.

Congrats!

Next time, stay in your seat unless you're hungry, thirsty, or have to pee.

Defending UMD's Students

On Oct. 18, there were words written in this space regarding the behavior of UMD students at a couple of the first five home hockey games.

The reason for that was, as a parent of an avid UMD hockey fan, it was my feeling that the behavior needed to stop before things got to a point where mass numbers of students were getting removed from games and having their season ticket privileges revoked.

UMD has only played two home games in the last three weeks, and one of them was sparsely-attended by students because it was Halloween night. Frankly, it was too early to judge if the backlash felt by students -- both from outside and inside the university -- was going to be enough.

Unfortunately, the Duluth News Tribune decided to take an ill-timed leap onto the bandwagon. Instead of writing a balanced article that addressed what happened, why it happened, and how people are already working to prevent it from happening in the future, the DNT did what it does best. It slammed the students who attend UMD and generally make Duluth a better place to live.

I don't know Jana Hollingsworth, and this isn't meant as anything personal, nor is it meant as any kind of slam at her journalistic talents. I'm not qualified to discuss those things, and I will not attempt to.

However, it's obvious from the finished product that either Jana didn't do all the necessary work to craft a well-rounded story, or the paper chose not to highlight all sides of the issue. Either way, someone has done something wrong.

If you missed our earlier work, you probably don't know what happened. During an Oct. 17 game at the DECC, inappropriate chants were directed towards the visiting team, Minnesota State. UMD's well-run fan site has a message board thread on the issue, one that has received over 2,200 views since it was first posted after that game. The discussion in that thread was generally centered around the idea that the leaders of the student section are well aware of what happened, and they're going to do what they can to prevent it in the future. It's hard for a small group of young people to police over 400 fans, but they're going to try, and it's generally worked well for this section over the years.

The DNT story centers around a student and her mother, who attended the game.

“I couldn’t believe that I heard it,” said Alyssa Longley, a UMD freshman who attended the game with her parents.

“There’s not one person that couldn’t have heard it.” Longley was seated across the arena from where the chants originated.

“Group mentality took over; they ended up portraying UMD as a vulgar and clearly not open-minded place to be, where I feel very comfortable on this campus being a lesbian,” Longley said. “I am treated really, really well here. They didn’t show that … at that instance.”

... Kathy Longley received responses from several UMD administrators, including an official written apology. And Nielson sent an e-mail to UMD student season ticket-holders, who make up the majority of students attending the men’s games.

The e-mail warns students that those who violate Western Collegiate Hockey Association, National Collegiate Athletic Association and university policies regarding fan behavior — including racist and sexist language and profanity — won’t be tolerated. Violators — and possibly the entire fan section — will be removed from the game and they could have their season tickets revoked, Nielson said. The student chants at the Mankato game were cited.

None of this is really a problem. In fact, it makes perfect sense and should stand as an official university position.

But where is the quote from a student section leader? Using the already-linked UMD fan site, it takes about two minutes to sift through the thread about the student section and find the username of a current leader. You can contact any member of the board through the site itself, so you don't even need their private e-mail address.

It was the responsibility of the newspaper to report all sides of this issue. In this case, for whatever reason, they failed.

(Naturally, if they tried to get a hold of people who are leading the student section, and had no luck, they would have noted this in the story, right? That's pretty common and fair practice.)

Even more strange was the decision of the paper to dedicate a large chunk of its daily editorial page to the story.

The moment wasn’t unprecedented, either. It was at least the third time in 12 years profane chanting has marred a UMD hockey game, according to Bill Wade, who oversees athletics at UMD as vice chancellor for university relations and development.

OH, NO! NOT THREE TIMES IN 12 YEARS! MERCY!!

Ahem ...

The same kind of offensive behavior -- or worse -- occurs approximately three times every 12 minutes at a St. Cloud State game.

Actually, the parent of an SCSU player has verbally harassed UMD fans in the National Hockey Center each of the last two years. Surely, you'll be stunned to know that the St. Cloud Times has dedicated exactly zero words to those incidents, and they surely haven't reported on them three weeks after the fact.

Sadly, neither has the Duluth News Tribune, which could have used testimony from either incident to show that fans who attend games at the DECC typically don't encounter anything nearly as hostile as when you go to other cities and watch the way their fans behave.

Instead, it almost feels like the paper is more interested in making UMD and its fans look bad.