The Ottawa Senators walked away from last night's game against the Columbus Blue Jackets with a victory, but according to Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News, they may not have walked away with their opponents respect or their own dignity due to a questionably dirty play by Chris Neil during a first period fight.
Video evidence of Neil and Columbus' Jared Boll dropping the gloves seems to show Neil at one point placing his hand on Boll's face and possible probing with his fingers for Boll's eye.
After the fight, Boll is clearly having trouble keeping the eye open or seeing out of it.
The video, while potentially damning, is altogether inconclusive. The refs, however, gave Neil a two-minute unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on top of the normal fighting major, meaning they thought Neil did something extra before, during or after the brawl.
Word came down today though, per Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Post Disptach that, after review, Neil will face no extra discipline from the league for the incident.
As for the game itself, the Senators and Clarke MacArthur used a big third period to subdue the Blue Jackets, who are still suffering the effects of a myriad of injury losses including starting goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, CBSSports.com reports.
MacArthur finished the game with two goals and an assist and defenseman Erik Karlsson added a goal and an assist. Goalie Robin Lehner had 36 saves.
''We played pretty good hockey in the third period,'' said MacArthur. ''We gave up a couple of chances but Lehnny was right there to make the big saves when we needed him.''
Curtis McElhinney got the start in place of Bobrovsky, his first game since hurting his neck in a collision on Oct. 18.
Columbus suffered two additional injuries during the game. Center Artem Anisimov left after an apparent head injury and defenseman James Wisniewski broke a finger in the third. Columbus coach Todd Richards said that Wisniewski will most likely miss one to two weeks.
''Whether I've done something or someone's done something to the hockey gods, I've never seen any like this,'' Richards said. ''It seems like every time we play a game somebody is getting hurt. At least that's what it feels like right now.''
Forwards Boone Jenner, Nathan Horton and Brandon Dubinsky have yet to play this season for the depleted Blue Jackets.
''Our leadership group stepped up tonight on the road to make sure we went home with some points,'' Senators coach Paul MacLean said.
