Leave it to hockey to provide a life lesson regarding the difference between the gutless, such as Woke, leftist “student” protesters supporting Hamas or other flavor-of-the-week causes, and those who are truly courageous.
The dichotomy was captured postgame by Boston Bruins coach Jim Montgomery to describe his star player David Pastrnak duking it out with Florida’s Matthew Tkachuk late in the teams’ Wednesday Stanley Cup Playoff game.
Pastrnak is a scorer, not a fighter. Tkachuk is both. Yet, with game’s outcome already assured by the lopsided score in Florida’s favor, Pastrnak and Tkachuk punctuated some on-ice combat among teammates by seeming to challenge each other from the bench.
Pastrnak (non-hockey fans might recognize him from once omnipresent ads he did for Dunkin’ Donuts) even appeared to give Montgomery advance notice he was headed onto the ice to fight Tkachuk.
As soon as the two players hit the ice on their next shifts, gloves and sticks were dropped and a battle ensued in which both gave as well as they got.
“There’s so many guys out there pushing after the whistle when the linesmen are there,” said Montgomery, referring to a trend of some hockey players to be emboldened knowing officials are on-hand to prevent them from getting their heads handed to them in an actual fight. “Pasta and Tkachuk, they just went out there and fought.”
Florida coach Paul Maurice similarly endorsed the concept of star players standing up for themselves, even taking an indirect shot at the Woke types among us.
“I think it was awesome,” Maurice said of the fight. “Sorry (to) whoever’s offended by that concept. I thought it was awesome.”
It was ironic that this high-profile hockey fight transpired mere hours after I’d read of pro-Hamas protesters at George Washington University chanting to have school administrators taken to the guillotine for not being supportive enough of terrorists.
No doubt these brave sorts in the crowd were masked up, the better to hide their identities. This has become a common theme among the left, the continuing gift of COVID-19 hysteria that made mask wearing accepted.
But, in Ohio, the state attorney general has notified those in charge of the state’s public, four-year universities that wearing masks at protests violates a longstanding law, ironically put in place to deal with Ku Klux Klan rallies. Violating the law is a felony.
The terrorist supporters just hate it when they can’t hide their identities. They hate it when they must face consequences, such as would-be employers deciding the extreme political views make the individuals less than attractive.
They hate it when they can’t demand free food, water and various other accommodations to make their protesting a bit more cushy.
If, as polls increasingly indicate, this nation is headed for yet another Civil War, I’m thinking the right will have more than its share of Pastrnaks and Tkachuks, willing to stand up for themselves and their beliefs.
And that’s bad news for the left.
Sam Ross Jr's site 