This falls under the saying, “stupid is as stupid does.”
By now you’ve probably seen, or at least heard, about the sucker punch that Montreal Canadiens forward Max Domi landed on Florida Panthers defenceman Aaron Ekblad.
It happened early in the third period of Florida’s 5-2 preseason win over the Habs at the Bell Centre on Wednesday night.
Ekblad, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2014 NHL draft who is entering his fifth season in the league, cross-checked Domi off the puck in the corner and as the puck left Florida’s end of the ice, Domi took a quick swing at Ekblad and missed.
Ekblad looked toward the referee, as if to say, “Are you going to call a penalty?”
But the referee’s arm stayed down.
That’s when Domi grabbed the front of Ekblad’s collar and yanked it back and forth a couple of times, hitting his opponent in the face, before he dropped his right glove and clocked Ekblad square in the face, leaving him a bloody mess.
I should mention that at no time did Ekblad — who’s had concussion issues in the past — indicate that he wanted to engage in a fight with Domi and all the while kept his gloves on and still had his stick in his hand when the punch was thrown.
On Thursday, the National Hockey League suspended Domi for the rest of the preseason.
Domi’s punch was dumb, and so was the post-game comments from Canadiens teammate Jonathan Drouin, who said: “Max just took matters into his own hands … It’s also Ekblad’s fault for not protecting himself.” That’s like saying a person who is killed by a drunk driver should have protected themselves. Dumb!
Back in 1995, Max’s dad, Tie Domi, was suspended eight games for sucker punching Ulf Samuelsson. Apparently, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
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