The Fight that Spurred the Comeback

There are bleeding hearts out there that want to change the game of hockey in one of the most irrevocable ways possible. Take fighting out of it, the five words that make everyone shudder. The game begs for it. The game needs it. Otherwise, you get the slap fest that is the European game. Last night was another case of a fight putting the emotion back into the game for a team once more.

The Calgary Flames were down 4-1 and heading to the end of the second period with a mountain to climb to get back into the thing. Then Noah Hanifin sends the “suicide pass” up the ice to his teammate Mark Jankowski (That's a whole other issue) where Ian Cole of the Avs absolutely unloaded on Jankowski.

In this day and age of hypersensitivity to any kind of big hit, it is refreshing to see a shoulder to shoulder hit from Cole (that admittedly he got an undeserved 5 minute major for charging) that gets a good response from the Flames.

Immediately, teammate Sam Bennett jumped in to make Cole pay for that huge hit. 

The tilt was good, early voting giving it a 5.6 out of 10 rating and then the Flames headed back to the locker room where that fight no doubt was the talk of the team. Bennett was in the middle of serving his 17 minutes for instigating the fight and getting his hands worked on a bit by the trainer.

Sam Bennett said “I was in the training room getting a little work done on my hands and missed (the first goal by the Flames in the comeback just 36 seconds in)”.

The Flames would storm back to win the game despite a late push by the Avs and after the game the Flames players were wanting to talk about how great it was to see Bennett stand up for his guys.

“He definitely knows how to throw em’ and that gave us momentum. We were down 4-1. That’s a great job for him stepping up for the team and for Janko. It brought a lot of energy into the room for the third. Benny started it for sure.” said Mikael Backlund

“I thought the turning point was Benny stepping up for a teammate in the second.”, Head Coach Bill Peters had to say about the comeback.

In a world becoming more dominated by stats and figures that can't quantify things like blocking shots and fighting, it's great to see the guys closest to the game recognizing what a well-timed and placed fight can do for a team.