Taking a play out of the Philadelphia Flyers Broad Street Bullies playbook, a team playing in the KHL in Russia started an all-out brawl six seconds into a game. Here’s the video:

It took the help of two former NHL players for team Vityaz Chekhov to instigate the fight against team Omsk Avangard and according to the latest reports, by the time the police get done with their investigations these thugs may regret dropping the gloves.

According to the Moscow News, Vityaz players Darcy Verot and Josh Gratton were required to make a trip to the local police station for an interrogation and there was a push for a civil case to be opened against them. There was also demands to ban both players from the league for life.

Question here is, when you watch the video, it appears Gratton (No. 92) and Verot were actually not the main aggressors in the fights while Sergei Belokon (No. 61) who pummels away at a defenseless player laying face down on the ice was. While there was a campaign for these players to face a legal court on charges, Avangard’s Martin Skoula and Roman Červenka were both left with concussions.

In the meantime, the KHL did step in and look over the tapes and decided to fine Avangard coach Anatoly Bardin 100,000 roubles and Vityaz coach Andrei Nazarov 400,000 roubles. We don’t know how many dollars all those roubles equal but it sounds like a lot so we’ll assume they got their Christmas’ ruined with the ruling.

In addition to those fines, the league decided to suspend Gratton for 15 games, Ivan Larin for 14 games, Georgy Belokon for 13 games and last but not least, Darcy Verot for 12. Gratton, who is still under contract with the Atlanta Thrashers, was reassigned to the KHL earlier this year and Verot who originally came into the NHL with the Pittsburgh Penguins has amassed more than 1,000 penalty minutes skating for Vityaz.

Avangard’s manager made a statement regarding the incident:

“Why does Russian hockey need these strange foreigners?”

Seems as though the North Americans may be wearing out their welcome overseas.

BTW don’t be confused by the fans’ reactions. While the fights appear to be appreciated by the crowd, keep in mind the whistling you hear throughout the ordeal is actually a sign of booing in Russia.

Copyright © 2010 Sports Climax, LLC

Pittsburgh Penguins pest Matt Cooke has a history of hitting players in the head and was suspended twice for it in 2009. This time he got KOed by a rookie. WARNING: Don’t blink or you’ll miss the knockout!

Last night Cooke took his act to Atlanta and in a meaningless game and decided to chase Thrashers rookie Evander Kane around challenging and harassing the youngster. Evander Kane, who is named after Evander Holyfield, finally accepted the invitation and the pair dropped their gloves. In a split second, in Holyfield fashion, Kane leveled Cooke with a right hook and knocked him out cold.

You could almost hear the cheers coming from Boston as Cooke laid on the ice with doctors tending to him and bringing out a stretcher.

Cooke is also the player who delivered the headshot to Boston Bruins star Marc Savard on March 7 that has sidelined the Bruins’ player ever since. Cooke, now a villain in Beantown, avoided any suspension for the Savard hit and has continued to be the pesky player Pittsburgh fans love and opponents love to hate.

After a long break, Cooke refused to be carted off and got up onto his feet and skated off on his own but is listed as day-to-day with a concussion.

When asked about the fight Thrashers coach John Anderson said, “Clearly Cooke came after an eighteen-year-old rookie. What goes around comes around.”

Since he’s a rookie who answered the call, Kane’s one-punch knockout joined our classic NHL brawls videos section.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax™

ATLANTA, GA. – It didn’t take long for the Atlanta Thrashers to get going Saturday night at Philips Arena in their important match-up against their Eastern Conference rival Philadelphia Flyers.

After the Thrashers’ Jim Slater squared off with Flyers’ enforcer Dan Carcillo and sent Carillo to the ice with a solid punch just 39 seconds after the puck was dropped, the Thrashers fed off that adrenaline and rookie Niclas Bergfors scored the game’s first goal about one minute later to take a 1-0 lead.

That tally was Bergfors’ 20th of the season and 7th since coming over from New Jersey in the Ilya Kovalchuk trade.
A short time later Ian Laperriere attempted to avenge Carillo’s thrashing and took on Thrashers’ enforcer Eric Boulton.

Like watching a replay, Laperriere ended up on the ice after exchanging a few punches with Boulton and again the Thrashers responded by putting the puck in the net a short time later to take a 2-0 lead.

The Thrashers never let up and played with more desperation than the visitors, carrying the play much of the game and with the help of 2 Colby Armstrong goals, his 14th and 15th of the season, went on to earn a 5-2 victory. Like Bergfors, Armstrong has come to life as of late and has 4 goals and 1 assist in the past two games.

This game was important to both teams. The Flyers came into the contest sitting in the # 5 spot in the Eastern Conference just one point ahead of the # 7 Montreal Canadians while the Thrashers were just three points behind the Boston Bruins for the final playoff spot.

With the ice tilted in the Thrashers’ favor, Carillo returned to the ice after serving his fighting major penalty and regained some momentum for his team, tipping in a Chris Pronger shot for his 10th of the year at the 8:16 mark to narrow the gap to 2-1.

That is as close as the Flyers would get all night as the Thrashers never trailed in the game and each time the Flyers would score, the Thrashers would respond with another goal.

The win moved the Thrashers one point away from that final playoff spot that is owned by the Boston Bruins.

The Flyers and Thrashers meet again Sunday night to complete their back-to-back series then the Thrashers return home to face the Bruins Tuesday night for another important game at Philips Arena at 7pm.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax™