First Call: Gary Bettman on future of fighting in NHL; San Jose welcomes Penguins after humiliating loss

With our “Airing of Grievances” and “Friday Football Footnotes,” we have the Pittsburgh Steelers pretty well covered after the Thursday night game against Tennessee. So this is an all-hockey “First Call.”

We’ve got Gary Bettman’s State of the Union on fighting in the NHL. Phil Kessel wants to keep playing. Adam Johnson’s British team has come up with a way to raise funds for a charity set up in his memory.

We examine exactly how bad the San Jose Sharks have gotten as they prepare to host the Penguins. And there are some early awards for the Robert Morris women’s hockey team.

Those sound like fightin’ words!

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman appeared on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Wednesday. He was asked about the state of fighting in the NHL and if he might try to put greater restrictions on it.

It certainly sounds as if he has no plans to do so.

"When you think about the nature of the game fighting in the spontaneous sense tends to act as a bit of a thermostat..

Fighting in the heat of the moment has been a good outlet and we don't need the staged fighting anymore" ~ Gary Bettman #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/R6PTff3jeb

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) November 1, 2023

Bettman began his answer by trotting out the old standby tropes about why fighting exists in the NHL in the first place.

“When you think about the nature of the game, it’s high speed; players are encouraged to make physical contact with each other. It’s emotional, it’s nonstop. And, by the way, everyone is carrying a stick,” Bettman said. “Fighting, in the spontaneous sense, tends to act as a bit of a thermostat when things happen in the course of the game. And it keeps the game under control.”

He then went on to prop up the league for thinning out some of the “staged fighting” from the game and weaning the “designated fighters” off rosters.

“Part of that is because the competitive balance is so intense that teams have concluded you can’t have a designated fighter anymore. What you really need are skilled players. And you don’t want to give up a roster spot,” Bettman continued. “Eighty percent of our games don’t have fights. The other 20%, the fights tend to be spontaneous and in the heat of the moment.”

I’d like to see some more of the hard data on those numbers as opposed to Bettman pulling them out of the air. But, OK.

Anyway, Gary, how do you justify the league going out of its way to minimize any kind of contact during play in the name of player safety, yet you still regulate fighting and don’t at least make it an automatic ejection from the game or a minimal one-game suspension like other sports tend to do? Isn’t that a bit hypocritical?

“We’re obviously aware of health and safety concerns. And that’s something we’ve been dealing with the Players Association for decades. But I think right now we’re in a good place,” Bettman said. “Yes, fighting is penalized, but fighting in the heat of the moment is something that has been a good outlet, and we don’t need the staged fighting anymore. I think the game is better without it.”

Until the next player gets seriously injured during a fight, and the NHL turtles and retracts everything Bettman says after the fact. But I guess we’ll just cross that bridge when we get to it, eh?

Do we really need a bigger boat?

If the Penguins lose to the San Jose Sharks, it may be time to do some real soul-searching. For as rough of a start as the Penguins have had to the 2023-24 campaign, losing to San Jose would be true bottom-of-the-barrel stuff.

The Sharks were trounced 10-1 by Vancouver on Thursday. They are now 0-9-1. Local product J.T. Miller had a goal and two assists.

Elite pass.
Elite finish. pic.twitter.com/qKveBJ6mRc

— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) November 3, 2023

The Sharks have only 10 goals, worst in the NHL. They’ve given up 44, the most in the NHL.

So the “Erik Karlsson Bowl” doesn’t exactly look like it’s happening with either team at its zenith.

Honoring Adam Johnson

Adam Johnson’s British Elite Ice Hockey League team has created a memorial jersey to honor the former Penguin.

Via the Daily Faceoff, the Nottingham Panthers have created the “AJ47” memorial jersey for the club’s online shop. They will also be available for purchase at the team’s home arena.

The jerseys cost 47 British pounds, in honor of Johnson’s number. That’s about $58 in U.S. dollars. All profits will be donated to the official GoFundMe page, the Love for Hibbing and Hockey Memorial Fund, set up by the team in Johnson’s memory. Johnson went to Hibbing High School in Minnesota.

Johnson died during a game on Oct. 28 against the Sheffield Steelers after his throat was cut by a skate blade. The Penguins honored Johnson during their home game against Anaheim on Monday night.

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Kessel comeback?

Former Penguins star Phil Kessel isn’t on an NHL roster right now. But he still wants to play as soon as someone is willing to sign him.

Speaking to The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun, Kessel told the outlet he is working out at home in Arizona and he would like to play NHL hockey again.

“I’m staying ready,” Kessel said. “I’ve been skating. In the next week, I’m going to work with a skating guy (in Arizona). We’re going to do individual sessions to stay ready.

“Obviously, I’m a little surprised I haven’t got anything yet, but it is what it is, right?”

Kessel played all 82 games last season and put up 14 goals and 36 points. He played 12 minutes and 49 seconds’ worth of ice time per game. But he was on the ice for only four of Las Vegas’ 22 postseason games.

LeBrun didn’t advance any rumored landing spots. No. Not even the Penguins.

Colonials comeback

In their first month back to competition after a two-year absence, the Robert Morris University women’s hockey team (4-6) has racked up some conference awards.

Forward Alaina Giampietro has been tabbed College Hockey America Rookie of the Week for the second time. She has also been named Rookie of the Month for the month of October.

The freshman out of Strongsville, Ohio, is on a four-game goal streak. Through the month of October, she produced six goals and six assists. Her 12 total points are currently second most in the conference.

Meanwhile, sophomore Maggie Hatch is the goalie of the month in the conference. She recorded 31 or more saves in each of her four outings, including a career-high 41 saves at Mercyhurst in the team’s first CHA win of the season. Hatch owns a .922 save percentage on the year and a 2.81 goals against average. She’s made 163 saves on the year and 109 in her past three starts.

The women’s team hosts Syracuse at 7 p.m. Friday and 3 p.m. Saturday. The men play an exhibition game against Simon Fraser at 7 p.m. Saturday at Clearview Arena.