The Buffalo Sabres faced off against the New York Rangers last night in what was a rather hearted game, culminating in a slew of penalties for Sabres defender Erik Johnson, which caused him to be rather upset. In fact, this incident was eerily similar to that of Nick Seeler a couple of nights ago as well.
Johnson didn't like that he was given the instigator in a fight with Rangers forward Will Cuylle and let the officials know in no uncertain terms how upset he was, but it didn't stop there, after the game Johnson had this to say regarding the incident; take a look.
Johnson has a right to be upset here, both players were given 5's for fighting as they should've been, but the instigator penalty is part of the game to prevent a player from jumping an unsuspecting opponent. Johnson asked Cuylle to fight, he said yes, they dropped their gloves at the same time. That's not an instigator.
We've seen this call go both ways more than once and it seems to be a judgement call made by the officials, if officials can bend and change the rules as they see fit, what're we even doing here.
