https://twitter.com/JeffVeillette/status/762682992728866816
Hockey is a bit of a unique sport in that it still allows a certain amount of fist fighting to go down within the rules. Get into a punch up in any other league and you’re liable to spend a good chunk of the season suspended. In hockey? Five minutes in the penalty box. But what Kazakh played Damir Raspiyev pulled in a recent game went way too far even for the rough and tumble Russian KHL.
Just three minutes into a game between Barys Astana and Kunlun Red Star (a new addition to the league based out of Beijing), Raspiyev gave the Kunlun team a special kind of welcome by beating up several of their players. As you can see from the clip, Raspiyev sucker punches one player at the whistle before beating up three other non-engaging Red Stars, knocking them to the ice one by one. He then takes a charge at the Red Star bench and starts attacking players that aren’t even on the ice, because if you’re going to go, then you might as well go big.
The attack sent former Islanders draft pick Tomas Marcinko to the hospital and caused the cancellation of the entire game. Damir Raspiyev, whose 2016-17 record stood at 0 points and 111 penalty minutes in 16 games, has been indefinitely suspended. Further ‘penal and disciplinary sanctions’ against him will be announced once the league fully investigates the matter. But for now we find him guilty of being the craziest enforcer in all of hockey. Well done?
