When a fight starts is a lot trickery to define than “when both players drop their gloves.” Unless there is a prolonged square off a lot of fights start when one player drops his gloves and starts punching. It’s not usually an issue because the consequences of the first punch aren’t usually as dire as they were for Matt Bradley on Saturday night. Take a look at some of Ian Laperriere’s fights from just this season. They all start as a result of some close in contact and only one of the participants shedding the gloves and then the other follows suit. What’s different for Lappy is that he starts with a jersey grab, whereas Daniel Carcillo starts all of his fights with a punch. I don’t think that I’m defending Carcillo here because in the end it was too close to the line. My first reaction was “I can’t believe that happened” not that he was going to get in some serious trouble. And when I was asked right after I honestly thought Carcillo would get a 2 for the original cross check, which Jim Jackson announced was coming, and 5 min for fighting.

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