In a wild game against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins this past week, Sean Gagnon made it a point to pursue Billy Tibbets. During warm-ups, the two teams lined up at center ice, 6 tough guys on each side, and jawed at each other while they made a pretense of stretching. Sean actually dropped the gloves at one point and issued an open invitation to anyone on the other team, but they all scurried away. Then, for the initial faceoff, defenseman Gagnon shoved a very amused Michal Grosek out of the circle and lined up opposite Tibbets for the draw. Both were sent to the box to settle down for 10 minutes before the game even began. When they finally got out, Billy spent most of his time trying to hop back onto the bench before Sean could catch him. Sean finally did catch up with him, smooshing Billy into a bloodstain along the boards to our delight.
Neither of them played in the third period, and speculation was rampant that there had been a brawl outside the locker rooms. I caught up with Sean as he sat out Wednesday’s game and asked him what happened. He said he had just injured his wrist, and would be back Friday (he was). I asked what had made him go after Billy like that, whether or not as a father of two little girls, he took offense to Billy’s recreational activities in the past. He said that while he didn’t like that part of him either, it was all because Billy didn’t show him the proper respect during warm-ups, and he was going to teach him some.
