The Vancouver Canucks didn’t put up a metaphorical fight in losing to the Anaheim Ducks 9-1 on Wednesday; Joacim Eriksson was probably right in describing the team as “not awake.” For better or worse, Tom Sestito seemed “alert,” though.
One game after racking up an ejection (including 27 penalty minutes) in one second of ice time, he was up to similar antics against the Ducks. He generated 22 penalty minutes in a comparatively robust 8:35 of ice time, thanks in large part to this incident with Tim Jackman and Mathieu Perreault in the third period, which earned him another ejection and another instigator penalty:
It wasn’t his only fight against Jackman tonight, either:
In 45 games this season, Sestito has 152 penalty minutes, easily the highest amount in the league. The 26-year-old’s total towers over Antoine Roussel’s 109 in second place.
The Canucks have been crowing about standing up for themselves lately and John Tortorella stood up for Sestito (and against the instigator) earlier on Wednesday. Here’s part of that quote, which seems especially interesting just hours later:
“We get caught in that, but if Tommy Sestito did that again, I would applaud him ...” Tortorella said.
Instead, he provided no explanation to reporters after tonight’s shellacking, as the Vancouver Province reports.