Garnet Exelby loses his mind

In Saturday's game between the Islanders and the Thrashers, the Thrashers were down 4-0 in the third when Garnet Exelby simply lost his mind.

After getting checked into the boards by Blake Comeau, Garnet Exelby skated behind Comeau and went on a frustration-fueled rampage. First, Exelby speared Comeau in the balls, then choked him, then punched him. Take a look for yourself:


The punching would be fine, except that they were not engaged in fisticuffs.

Exelby was given two minutes for slashing, although clearly the infraction was "spearing". He was also given five for fighting and a game misconduct. This might be the only time I've ever seen a fighting penalty go to one player only. I guess that's where the game misconduct comes in, although there would have been one anyway if the initial call had been "spearing" rather than "slashing".

I hope the league takes a good look at this and sits Exelby down for more than the standard two games. His actions were malicious and outside the bounds of hockey.


There were about a million fights in the game between the Canucks and Oilers, and there was one nasty stick-swinging incident, but this is a little more disturbing.

For once, there's not a Flyers player doing something dumb.