VIDEO: Wild Beat-Down Earns Gudbranson 27 Minutes in Penalties

Sunday, December 10, 2023

It was in the making since a first-period run-in, and as soon as Erik Gudbranson saw a chance for revenge, he pounced on Nick Cousins and gave him a beat-down on Sunday that earned him nearly half an hour's worth of penalties.

Gudbranson was assessed a two-minute minor for instigating, a five-minute fighting major, a 10-minute instigator misconduct, and a 10-minute game misconduct. That's 27 minutes in penalties. He also had another roughing minor earlier in the third, giving him 29 for the game. 

But there was a method to Gudbranson's madness, as he was crushed hard from behind into the boards by Cousins at the start of the game, who earned a boarding call for this illegal hit: 

The refs originally called a major penalty on Cousins for that, but then changed it to a two-minute minor. Gudbranson bounced right up after the hit to try to throw 'em with Cousins, but he just dropped to the ice. Similar to what he did later in the game, when Cousins just turtled for self-preservation when Gudbranson jumped him. 

Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Pascal Vincent said afterwards if the officials would have handled the first boarding hit properly, the melee wouldn't have gone down. "He's vulnerable, facing the boards. We believe it was a five-minute (penalty on Cousins). If that call happens, that thing doesn't happen."

Safe to say that the NHL just may take a look into all this and have a bit more to say about it themselves.

By the way, the Florida Panthers came out on top where it counts, on the scoresheet, beating the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-2.

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