There are a ton of unwritten rules and codes in hockey. Don’t shoot the puck after the whistle, don’t cross the red line during the warmup and don’t punch a player after he’s down.
There’s plenty of other examples, but it’s clear Anthony Mantha may need to study up on that last one after he punched Greg McKegg in the head after McKegg was down on the ice.
Mantha picked up five minutes for fighting, two for instigating and a 10-minute misconduct once the officials came in to break things up.
There’s actually a couple punches thrown from Mantha after McKegg is down, but only one of them really connected. Boy did it connect. It looked like Matha’s knuckles caught McKegg across the top of his head.
That’s an extremely dirty play. When the fight is over, it’s over. Mantha appeared to be unhappy he couldn’t land any big punches during the brief tilt itself, so he used the moment McKegg was defenseless to try and get in a major blow.
Mantha was likely trying to send a message, not only to the guy he was physically punching, but also to his team. He was a healthy scratch earlier this month and reportedly took that as a challenge. He aimed to come back and elevate his game, including sticking up for his teammates.
Sticking up for your teammates is an admirable quality, but there’s nothing admirable about punching a guy when he’s down on the ice.
