During a third-period TV timeout in Thursday’s Sharks-Penguins game, San Jose’s Evander Kane said he snuck a peek at the opposing team’s whiteboard to see what they were going to run. Maybe it was because the Penguins were already behind 3-0, or maybe the tactic broke some unwritten hockey rule, but Kane set off a donnybrook that ended with six players and Pittsburgh head coach Mike Sullivan getting sent off the ice.
You can’t see what Kane did, but here’s everything after it. He and Tanner Pearson were dismissed for fighting (the period had less than five minutes to go); Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby and Marcus Pettersson were tossed for their jabs; San Jose’s Brenden Dillon received a game misconduct; and Sharks goon Micheal Haley, who was claimed on waivers on Tuesday and landed a shot on Crosby, got the boot as well.
While the officials were reviewing what the hell had happened, Sullivan was ejected for saying some things, including, “Fucking asshole,” at one of the refs.
Oh, and two seconds of game time later, Phil Kessel earned a minor for smacking Erik Karlsson with his stick. Bad Phil!
Kane tried to be coy after the game. Via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
“I was kind of doing what I always do,” Kane said. “I was just standing there looking at their bench, just looking at their board they were using.”
Kane was asked if he often stares at the other team’s whiteboard.
“They’re about to pull their goalie,” Kane said. “It’s a little bit of a savvy, veteran thing to do, right? If you can see it, why wouldn’t you look at it?”
On the other side, Sullivan wasn’t as cooperative.
Even he knew that this was a very silly thing to fight over. None of it changed anything, as the Sharks still won, 4-0.