Columbus Goalie Elvis Merzlikins Loses His Cool And Comes Up Swinging at Calgary Flames' Mackenzie Weegar
Moments ago in today's game between the Columbus Blue Jackets and Calgary Flames, goaltender Elvis Merzlikins got his wires crossed and charged Flames defender Mackenzie Weegar.
Mackenzie Weegar was up in the play, jamming at a puck in the crease being covered by Merzlikins.
Weegar was right in front of Merzlikins and digging multiple times at the puck while three Blue Jackets defenders all stood by watching - not one of them taking the body to stop Weegar.
With no teammate adequately protecting Merzlikins, the goaltender decided to take matters into his own hands, and got up throwing hands.
Merzlikins was wildly throwing jabs with his blocker to Weegar's body and towards his head.
Hockey is a contact sport where fighting is allowed, but throwing punches with a blocker on is much more dangerous and painful than a bare hand.
The Columbus goaltender was rightfully given a two minute penalty for roughing on the play, and Weegar got an offsetting penalty for roughing too.
Interestingly, the broadcasters noted that frustration for Merzlikins has been building for some time now - and he may have been looking to pick a fight.
»I think Elvis has been waiting to do this for a long time. We've seen glimpses of it this season.»
This could be the Blue Jackets goaltender sending a message to his team that they need to stick up for him and defend their crease much better. Weegar was given too many direct open jabs at the goaltender while Columbus failed to clear the net front.
Of course, Oilers fans will know too that Calgary can be a bit of a dirty team that is perfectly capable of instigating an incident like this.
It'll be interesting to see if NHL player safety takes any approach to supplemental discipline for Merzlikins for throwing punches with the blocker - a fine should be an acceptable punishment.
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