Artem Anisimov Incited A Fight With His Goal Celebration
Fights rarely break out in NHL games after goals are scored. It takes a pretty jerky celebration to incite a brawl after a goal and tonight New York’s Artem Anisimov showed the world what kind of celebration it takes. After scoring a short-handed goal to put the Rangers up 2-1, Anisimov skated away and used his stick as a prop gun to shoot the Lightning’s defense. That’s when the Lightning players went after the young Ranger. Via NHL.com:
“It’s just classless,” Tampa Bay forward Steven Stamkos said. “I think I’ve seen him do that once or twice before, so no surprise there. We got the win. He’ll know it’s in the back of our minds the next time we see him. But we’re not going to break focus because of that. We wanted to win the game and we did.
“I don’t know if you saw the replay, but he turned back and pointed the stick like a gun and shot it at Vinny. We don’t need that in our sport. For the most part, you don’t see that too much. But it happens once in a while and it’s dealt with.”
Unwritten rules always make for great debates. All-in-all, the scuffle resulted in 38 minutes worth of penalties.