There's no doubt Sudbury Wolves forward Kyle
Musselman is a rugged customer. In light of the recent negative
publicity Musselman is getting from national media outlets for
his sucker punch to the face of Ottawa 67's player Mark Mancari
in Game 3, I think it's a perfect time to let people know
Musselman isn't a thug.
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SCOTT HUNTER HADDOW |
The Wolves and 67's are currently in a heated
battle in the second round of the OHL playoffs.
Despite his aggressive style of play,
Musselman is one of the most sincere, genuinely nice guys I
have ever met.
I wrote a feature story on Musselman last
November. After the story ran, the next time I saw Musselman,
he couldn't thank me enough, shaking my hand repeatedly.
Soon after, Musselman asked me if I could get
him a picture of him playing hockey, and not fighting, so his
mother could have a "nice" picture of her son.
I got him the picture. The next time I saw
again, it was in the Wolves training room. Mussleman dropped
his barbell, ran across the gym and gave me a big hug and high
five-handshake. Again, Musselman couldn't thank me
enough.
With that single gesture, I knew Musselman
was a man with respect and a tremendous personality.
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MUSSELMAN |
Yes, Musselman's role is to supply muscle,
but he loves the game and loves to play it.
Everybody makes mistakes. Mussleman made his
mistake when the national spotlight was on the OHL playoffs.
Ottawa bench boss Brian Kilrea
seized the opportunity to cause controversy
by comparing Monday's incident to the Todd Bertuzzi mugging of
Steve Moore last season in the NHL.
It was anything but. It was different
circumstances and had different results.
Musselman more or less tapped Mancari with a
solid punch. Mancari dropped like a ton of bricks, but was
completely fine, as he played in game four, and scored a
goal.
Musselman has been suspended indefinitely by
the league until further review.
And let's face it, Mancari is no saint
himself. Mancari is a rough player, and he fought eight times
during the regular season, against some of the
league's toughest guys. (Musselman had 20
fights.)
Mancari was interviewed about the incident
this week, wearing a baseball hat with the word GOON on it in
big, bold letters.
What statement was Mancari making wearing
that hat?
Wednesday night during the Windsor-London
game, there was a big punch up between London's super star
Corey Perry and Windsor's Steve Downie. The referee was
in-between the players, but Perry was loose and managed to land
several punches to Downie's head.
Will Perry be persecuted in the same way as
Musselman? I doubt it.
Bottom line is the whole Musselman-Mancari
scene was blown out of proportion.
Scott Hunter Haddow covers sports for Northern Life.
