The NHL Needs To Allow A One-Time Player vs Coach Fight For Ryan Reaves And Steve Ott
Did Ryan Reaves and Steve Ott spend a few years together as teammates in St. Louis? Yes. Are they for the most part just messing around with each other in this clip? Absolutely.
But that doesn't change the fact that both of these maniacs have a short enough fuse that some friendly chirping could quickly turn into each of them wanting to cave the other's skull in. Reavo already said it a few years ago that Steve Ott is sensitive and can get easily get rattled.
All I'm saying is that the Rangers and Blues play again in a week. Ryan Reaves is going to see the video of this tummysticks display get out there, he's going to see that Steve Ott took the win with the "what's your last name" chirp, and he's going to have to raise the stakes on March 10th. At some point he could very easily say something that gets the wires to cross. And I think it would be in the league's best interest to just get out ahead of this one and make a one time rule where a coach and a player are allowed to scrap.
Steve Ott was more of a pain in the ass than anything, so I'm not sure how long he'd last against Reaves. But if you get Reaves to pull his punches a little because he doesn't want to manslaughter his old linemate, I think we could get a pretty decent tilt on our hands. Just something for Gary Bettman to consider since he's been dealing with some brutal PR over the past couple months between the Olympics and sending the Coyotes to go play in a college barn.