Here's Why You Don't Pretend To Shoot The Other Team, Artem Anisimov

Consider this a lesson in ethics. My ethics. Which have 20% more salt than regular ethics. Where am I right now?

Watching the game against the Lightning tonight was an interesting affair. The Rangers held the lead going into the 3rd, and looked as if they were going to win the game until Domenic Moore shelfed a nice backhand and sent it to overtime where the Rangers lost in the shootout. But lets jump back to the second goal by the Rangers. Artem Anisimov parked himself in front of the net shorthanded to score the second goal for the Rangers. Uncharacteristically, Anisimov turned around, put the blade of the stick in his hand, crouched and pretended to shoot at the goal which he had just scored on. This incensed Lightning captain Vinny Lecavalier, who was in the metaphorical line of fire, and he charged at Anisimov which sparked a big brawl where even Steve Downie came off the bench to get into the action. At the moment, I thought the celebration was friggin' hysterical. But looking back on how the game went from there on, I wish he hadn't done it.



I play hockey with my crew of friends (shout out to the Winnipeg/Hardford boys) at my local recreation center. Needless to say, none of us are pros. Hell, some of us play on foot. We're all roughly in the 18-22 age zone, so there is a lot of bad mouthing that goes on during our games, along with our fair share of taunting/threats to desecrate each others mothers. I've been in some heated battles with my friends, where I've scored a goal, and done my share of talk and taunting. Over time, I've learned to keep my mouth shut and my gestures to a little stick raise whenever we get a goal because it helps me out. When a team is scored on, they are immediately looking for something to motivate themselves. All it takes is a cocky fist pump, or that one word you say to light a fire under the opposition, and make them perform at a higher reason. You may not know it when you do it, but by doing your little dance after a goal, you just gave the other team reason to come back at you twice as hard.

That is what happened to Artem Anisimov tonight. Had Anisimov kept his cool, the Lightning would have been left alone to wallow in their sorrows of being scored on. By doing his little rifle pose, he gave them the motivation to come back harder at the Rangers, and in the end, it worked for them because they won the game. As I stated in my article "Why I Prefer Hockey Over Football," these dances are for amateur, glory hogs. That is not what this team is about. No one needs a cocky distraction to get a team off their game, or make their opposition all riled up. A professional acts as if he's been there before, and acts accordingly.

And for those who may think I'm trying to suck the fun out of what happened, or I'm favoring the Lightning over the home team, think of it this way: you would have done and thought the same exact thing that Vinny Lecavalier probably thought during that moment.