NHL Fines Coach for Player Fight

After a fight-marred game between the Kings and the Senators in Ottawa, the NHL suspended Senator defenseman Zdeno Chara and fined Coach Bryan Murray on Saturday..

Chara was suspended for his fight Friday with the Kings’ Tim Gleason with 3 minutes 29 seconds left in Ottawa’s 5-1 win. Chara received three penalties, including one for instigating a fight. Under a newly adopted NHL rule, a player who receives an instigator penalty in the last five minutes of a game receives a one-game suspension and his coach is fined $10,000.

“The intent and spirit of Rule 56(a) were applied properly in this incident,” Colin Campbell, NHL director of hockey operations, said in statement.

The league did not impose the same penalties on Phoenix Coach Wayne Gretzky and Shane Doan after Doan got an instigator penalty late in a Nov. 22 game against the Ducks.

The league ruled that Doan was a “two-way” player who had not been out to send a message at the end of the game.

Referring to that incident, Murray said he didn’t expect to be fined. But his position was weaker than Gretzky’s because Chara lined up as a forward before jumping Gleason eight seconds after Ottawa’s Chris Kelly had started another fight.

Senator spokesman Phil Legault said Murray would not comment until today.

King General Manager Dave Taylor said, “This case was exactly the reason the rule was created.”

-- Chris Foster