NHL’s Brendan Shanahan “hates” Ray Emery fight

If there’s anybody qualified to talk about Philadelphia Flyers goalie Ray Emery beating the heck out of Washington Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby last week, it is Brendan Shanahan, the NHL’s VP of Player Safety.

Shanahan, who will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame this weekend, played in the NHL for more than 20 years, winning three Stanley Cups. He scored more than 650 goals and 1300 points in his career. During that time, he also had 137 fights and spent 1.63 minutes in the penalty box per game.

So, if you’re going to talk about Emery skating the length of the ice to beat up Holtby, an unwilling combatant, Shanahan is your guy. That’s what the Sportsnet Hockey Central guys did today and Shanahan didn’t hold back.

“I hate what Ray Emery did. I hate what I saw,” Shanahan said.

He isn’t the only one. Phoenix Coyotes goalie coach Sean Burke, as tough as they come in his playing days, took a shot at Emery for targeting Holtby. Keep in mind, the Caps were leading Philadelphia 7-0 at the point of the brawl and Holtby was working on a shutout before Emery started swinging.

“When you’re beating up Holtbys and Martin Birons, that’s not tough,” Burke told Fox Sports Arizona. “There’s been a lot of big goalies in this league he’s played that I have never seen him go near. As one of the bigger goalies in the league and a guy who thought he could defend himself, I’d be embarrassed to do what he did.”

The fact that Emery was awarded the third star of the game after allowing four goals on just 15 shots is absolutely laughable and that’s the real problem here – the league’s image after another ugly incident.

However, in Shanahan’s interview he also stressed  that whether he liked the situation or not, he had to abide by the rules in place. That meant that Emery couldn’t be suspended. Instead, Shanahan suggested that if there were to be changes in the NHL’s rules regarding fights that involve “unwilling participants” the league’s GMs would have to first make a proposal. From there it would go to the competition committee before it would be voted upon. So, it’s not like Shanahan could have thrown the book at Emery anyway.

It’s just the latest chapter of this whole fighting debate and whether you like it or not, there will be many more written before anything is resolved. In the latest poll, 98 percent of NHL players supported fighting in the NHL, so with that being the case, incidents like the one we saw between Emery and Holtby will happen again. And if the NHL wants to do something about them, it’s going to be a long uphill climb.

The Capitals and Flyers are back in action tonight. Check out the latest NHL odds at Sports Interaction.