It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what caused the bad blood in last night’s Sharks-Blue Jackets tilt, a game that featured nearly 100 penalty minutes.
It could’ve been the blowout factor (San Jose won 6-0), or the dirty hit factor (Jared Boll delivered a headshot to Joe Thornton), or the overall frustration factor (the Blue Jackets are terrible)...
Or, as Columbus coach Todd Richards suggested, maybe it was THE WATER-BOTTLE FACTOR.
“As [Derek] Dorsett is coming down the ice, you can see a water bottle squirted on him from San Jose’s bench,” Richards told CSN Bay Area of a third-period fight between Dorsett and Colin White. “I don’t know if that’s what set him off, but as he’s carrying the puck up the ice, that happens.
“Things erupt a little bit then and you get some emotion.”
Here’s video of what we assume to be the alleged incident. There’s a really good close-up at the 54 second mark, though no clear-cut evidence of any squirting.
Interesting to note that, at the 28 second mark, Dorsett emerges from the fight gesturing at the Sharks bench. Could it be in response to the alleged squirt?
Whatever the case, the Blue Jackets will likely want to put this incident behind them and focus on their next opponent -- the Los Angeles Kings. If any Kings end up squirting water from the bench, at least the Jackets will know it’s accidental:
