Tom Sestito won't be suspended for Dale Rolfe'ing Brandon Prust

by Travis Hughes on Feb 6, 2012 7:00 PM EST in Philadelphia Flyers News

Pulling hair, to my knowledge, wasn't actually illegal in the NHL when Dave Schultz did it to Dave Rolfe in 1974. It might have been, but I wasn't born, so I'm allowed to claim ignorance here. Anyway, it is illegal today, and Tom Sestito very obviously did it to Brandon Prust on Sunday at Madison Square Garden.

You can see it there around the :43 second mark. Should have been a match penalty, according to the NHL rulebook, but the officials missed it and it wasn't called. According to the New York Post, Sestito won't be penalized at all for it. The league has decided not to penalize him in any way for the incident.

Strange. I mean, we'll take it... but uh, he probably deserved something for that.

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I didn’t want to think anymore about that game. Not cool.

"Because wives and girlfriends aren’t on the road."

by BannedStreetBully on Feb 6, 2012 7:08 PM EST reply actions

yeah thanks a lot travis

by Jazzy85 on Feb 6, 2012 8:14 PM EST reply actions

Was that his first game misconduct this year?

by youaretheman26 on Feb 6, 2012 8:28 PM EST reply actions

it was five yard love tug, not a fifteen yard natty dread scalping

by fitzy first on Feb 6, 2012 8:35 PM EST via Android app reply actions

POS Rags. I hate that team.

by Kanayd on Feb 6, 2012 9:25 PM EST reply actions 1 recs

I hate when things like this happen. It totally derails my “the NHL conspires against the Flyers” delusion .

by Nooie on Feb 6, 2012 9:50 PM EST reply actions 1 recs

The refs will remedy that tonight.

by rugbyrowe on Feb 7, 2012 9:55 AM EST up reply actions

it’s frustrating to see them play really well defensively

A Flyers fan in Pittsburgh and doing my part to make them uncomfortable.

by Daniel Ramirez on Feb 7, 2012 12:30 AM EST via Android app reply actions

Not to condone hair pulling but that was a wrestling match and they were tustling. That was hardly a Rolfe moment. Schultz was rag dolling Rolfe by his hair and pulling it to pick his head up to get punches right at his face. Good non issue.

Commenter formerly known as M from Pdaddy, but still just Call Me "M"!

DISCLAIMER: Information written above may not be entirely factual nor provable with the use of complex statistics. But it may induce thought, humor and possibly laughter.

by MJDII on Feb 7, 2012 9:58 AM EST via mobile reply actions

Is it ‘biting’ when you punch a guy in his open mouth and get cut by his teeth? No – same thing here. I agree.

Maxime Talbot - in the Orange and Black ... better than chocolate and peanut butter!

by MaximumTalbot on Feb 7, 2012 1:31 PM EST up reply actions

Can’t be blamed for that.

Commenter formerly known as M from Pdaddy, but still just Call Me "M"!

DISCLAIMER: Information written above may not be entirely factual nor provable with the use of complex statistics. But it may induce thought, humor and possibly laughter.

by MJDII on Feb 7, 2012 3:45 PM EST up reply actions

I don’t think hair pulling is a big deal. The refs are standing there letting you punch a guy in his face and they are supposed to hand out a misconduct for hair pulling? I get that it’s dirty fighting but I think that it’s one of those things that the league should just stay out of. A lot of the rules that have been implemented since the Schultz days are designed to protect players from injury. The fact is that hair pulling isn’t going to give anybody a concussion. This is an issue that should be policed by the players. You pull hair and either somebody kicks your ass for being a scumbag or in the case of Sestito nobody agrees to fight you anymore and you become irrelevant like Jody Shelley. When I played Rugby we pulled hair all the time. If you didn’t want your hair pulled you shaved your head.

by DrunkHockeyFan on Feb 7, 2012 3:19 PM EST reply actions

I guess I could see it being an extra 2 for unsportsmanlike. That would definitely be a fair call.

by DrunkHockeyFan on Feb 7, 2012 3:20 PM EST up reply actions

The fact is that hair pulling isn’t going to give anybody a concussion.

I hadn’t thought about it in that way. It does offer a reasonable explanation for why the league didn’t do anything. “Refs should have penalized him for it but it doesn’t warrant us fixing that.”

/s, more often than not

by flyersfaninchicago on Feb 7, 2012 4:03 PM EST up reply actions

Exactly. I could see the refs calling a penalty but having the league do something would be overkill. If anything it would just draw more attention to the incident and the league doesn’t want that.

by DrunkHockeyFan on Feb 7, 2012 4:48 PM EST up reply actions