Since it is still November, you can say we have yet to enter the Month Of Good Cheer and Glad Tidings, and that was certainly evident in the NHL game held in Ottawa last night between the Florida Panthers and the hosting Senators. Things became chippy, as they say, as the game slipped away from the homers, and then by the third period it devolved into a street fight, and the problem rose to a level that the refs had to eliminate the problem.

That meant simply removing every player that was in the game.

It is not an uncommon development when the home team is in a game that becomes futile that they resort to focusing on physical play as a means of saving face. The Senators were behind early, giving up a goal after just a minute and a half, and then things unspooled from there in the second period. Down two goals, there was a video review of another strike by the Panthers and even though it appeared Florida’s star forward Matthew Tkachuk was slightly offsides the goal was called a good one. The fans grumbled, the Senators roiled, and the game was essentially over by then as the homers never challenged to a serious degree. 

Things shifted at the end of the period as most of the players were involved in group gripe-fest as time ran out, and this carried over into the final frame. A number of penalties were called in the third as the tensions built and the officials attempted to tamp down the contempt, and then it hit a crescendo with just over seven minutes remaining.

That was when Matthew’s brother Brady Tkachuk ran Florida’s goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, and things descended into madness. The fights that erupted were strewn across the ice surface and it took minutes for the on-ice officials to segregate the brawlers and then sort out the punishments, with lead referee Garrett Rank deciding he would just clear the ice of trouble entirely. Every skater, and others, were promptly tossed from the game.

"Every player on the ice has a 10-minute misconduct, among other penalties."

😂😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/uvWt11PY32

— Bally Sports Florida: Panthers (@BallyPanthers) November 28, 2023

At the conclusion of the melee, 16 penalties were called on 13 players, and the teams combined to see a full dozen promptly kicked out for the balance of the game. Panthers head coach Paul Maurice was not at all displeased, with the way his team stood up nor with the result.

“It got a little snarly. That was fun. It was good. Sometimes hockey can get like that, it is what makes the game so darned great. It is graceful, beautiful, physical and angry all at the same time. It was good. Probably good for both teams.” 

By the end, the teams combined for 30 penalties in all, totaling over 160 minutes, and the Tkachuk brothers tallied eight of those between them. (Matthew, surprisingly, was not removed given his line was not on the ice for the final bout.) As Florida’s television analyst Randy Moller remarked after the ice was cleared of discarded hockey gear, “The official score sheet is going to look like a CVS receipt.”

He was not wrong.

I ran stats for the Panthers one season. It is not often the final score sheet needs to be 2 pages, but over 160 minutes of penalties will do that. pic.twitter.com/31SIw305I3

— Brad Slager: Flips On The Highbeams In Fog Of War (@MartiniShark) November 28, 2023