Lemieux's tantrum certainly could have used a little self-flagellation over his own dirty team and, in particular, the antics over the past few years of Pittsburgh's serial offender, Matt Cooke. But simply to dismiss the Penguins owner as a hypocrite is too easy, too convenient for those who use ridicule to butt-end every mouth that opens against violence in hockey.
The man is respected in the league and his opinion matters. The Pens finished the fucken game with 7 players on the bench. There was a problem with the way the game was handled, as they could have slapped a 5 or 10 minute long powerplay after the dirty hits but they didn't. They could have suspended players for far more than 4 or 9 games as they CLEARLY intended to injury, the act of what the Islanders were doing was flagrant. Godard got 10 games for jumping on the ice when an Islander player went after their goalie after he was removed from another fight on the ice. This is a clear indication that the game went out of hand and that player should have gotten suspended as well. Did he? No.
In the end, the league weren't harsh enough and didn't pass a message.
Fighting is part of the sport. Throwing your gloves for the the whole game distracts from the game and isn't what hockey is all about.
Matt Cooke is a piece of shit and I wished he was the one who would have been on the receiving end of one of those cheap shots but seriously, Tangredi didn't do anything to deserve what he got to him. To even consider, "Well, he's Matt Cooke's teammate, he doesn't deserve any sympathy, shut up mario, matt cookie is a POS" is asinine and mentally retarded.
No offense.