Down Goes Brown's Grab Bag: Why it's OK to Cheer Player Injuries... Sometimes

(Editor's note: Welcome to Sean McIndoe's weekly grab bag, where he writes on a variety of NHL topics. You can follow him on Twitter.)

The third star: Ryan Reaves—The Blues winger learned an important lesson: trying to interact with other human beings is a waste of time.

I wouldn't leave you hanging bud — Dan (@dan_collins99)October 16, 2016

Nice save by Kevin Shattenkirk, though.

The second star: Mitch Marner's mom—Her son scored his first NHL goal, but she missed it because she was in the bathroom. And yes, I know you're expecting me to go for a cheap laugh here by making some sort of juvenile potty joke, but I can assure you that I'm better than that.

Anyway, I wasn't sure whether this clip should be No. 1 or No. 2.

The first star: Phil Kessel—Just his continued existence. And his terrible hair.

Truth: Kessel loves country music
Truth: Kessel's dog is named Stella
Lie: Kessel is a wonderful singer
In the Room: — Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins)October 18, 2016

I do feel like we're closing in on the point where we'll need to invoke the Bryzgalov Rule and disqualify Kessel from future Three Stars sections, just to give the rest of the league a chance. But I'm not there. I can't pull the trigger just yet. Don't rush me on this.

On Monday, Cleveland pitcher Trevor Bauer had to leave Game 3 of the ALCS in the second inning after his stitched-up finger started to bleed. Some Toronto fans appeared to cheer his departure, and cheering an injury is classless, according to just about everyone.

This was a baseball game, and this column in suppose to be about hockey. But while mid-game injuries are rarer in MLB, this comes up all the time in the NHL. You may remember it being a major issue a few years ago, when Sidney Crosby tweaked his knee during Game 7 of the Cup final against the Red Wings, and Detroit fans were hammered for cheering his departure. It's going to come up a few times this year. So let's talk about it now.

First thing's first: Stop saying "classless." We've been over this before, but it's worth repeating. It's sports. Nobody is wearing top hats and monocles, and nobody should expect anyone to be classy. There's a whole legion of fans out there who can no longer handle any minor controversy without lecturing everyone on class. I know you're mad that something happened to your favorite team, but if you can't string together three sentences without quoting a movie that came out 12 years ago then just be quiet and let the grownups talk.

But on to the bigger issue. Is it ever OK to cheer an injury?

Yes. Yes, it is.

I realize that's not a popular opinion. We're supposed to take the high road here. It's just sports, after all, while injuries are real life. These guys are playing a game, and it's all just supposed to be entertainment. Being happy over somebody else's misfortune is morally wrong.

And there's some truth to that. It is just a game, and we all take it way too seriously most of the time. But it's a game that occasionally includes injuries, and sometimes those injuries shift the balance in favor of the home team. When Crosby limped off the ice, the Red Wings' chance of winning the Stanley Cup went up significantly. It's silly to expect fans not to acknowledge that.

If you're going to be a sports fan, you're either OK with the occasional injury or you're not. If you pay money to stand and cheer for a sport that you know will cause hundreds of injuries over the course of a season, you don't get to grab the moral high ground just because you make a big show of bowing your head in silence when the inevitable happens.

Besides, if injuries are off limits, other things should be, too. What if my team is beating a team that's rumored to be about to fire its head coach? A man's livelihood is at stake. Can I still cheer? Or what if the other team's goalie is some kid who's been in the minors for years and is finally getting a shot at the NHL? Can I cheer if he gets shelled? I'm watching a childhood dream get crushed. What kind of monster would I be if I seemed happy about that?

Now let's be clear: There absolutely is a line here. If you're cheering while a guy is still writhing in pain, you're a psychopath. And any serious injury, the kind that could be career or quality-of-life threatening, is clearly off the table. That's where the "it's just a game" rule really does trump anything that's happening on the field, court or ice. If there's any possibility that someone may have suffered that kind of injury—and these days, concussions certainly fall into that category—then sit down and shut up.

But if a guy tweaks his knee, or gets a tooth knocked out, or (just hypothetically) cuts his pinky playing with a toy and has it open up on him a few days later? Be it resolved that you should feel free to cheer away. And if anyone tries to lecture you about class, tell them that their performative outrage isn't fooling anyone.

This year's rookie class continues to be a big story in this week's opening weeks, with Auston Matthews, Patrik Laine, Travis Konecny and others all looking great. That led me to wonder about hot starts, so I went to Hockey Reference to find out which rookie had scored the most goals in his team's opening few games of a season. We end up with some familiar names, including Tomas Hertl, Vladimir Tarasenko and Alexander Ovechkin, as well as legends like Joe Sakic and Teemu Selanne. And then there's what I was hoping to find: an obscure player. Namely, Roman "The Ox" Oksiuta.

Oksiuta was a big Russian winger taken by the Rangers in the 10th round of the 1989 draft, just a few picks behind Arturs Irbe. He never made it to New York; in 1992 he was traded to the Oilers for Kevin Lowe. That was a reasonably big deal at the time, and Oksiuta came into Edmonton with high expectations. He played ten games during the 1993-94 season, scoring once, and then locked down a full-time job as a rookie in training camp the following September.

He got off to a hot start, scoring twice in the season opener and adding a goal in each of his next two games. But his production quickly tailed off, and he was traded to Vancouver at the 1995 deadline for Jiri Slegr. That ended up being a pattern—for three years in a row, Oksiuta was traded at the deadline in a straight-up deal for a respected veteran. In 1996 he went to Anaheim for Mike Sillinger. In 1997, it was off to Pittsburgh for Richard Park. He never stuck around anywhere long, and by the end of the 1996-97 season his NHL career was over at the age of 26. He finished with 46 goals in 153 games over parts of four seasons.

Aside from being dealt for Lowe, his NHL claim to fame was scoring the last Canucks goal ever at the Pacific Coliseum. But his most lasting impact may have come in that first Oilers training camp: By holding down jersey No. 28, he forced a kid named Ryan Smyth to switch to his iconic 94 instead.

The issue: After a blowout loss, the Oilers practiced on a CBA-mandated day off on Monday. The NHLPA isn't happy about it.

The outrage: What's the world coming to if a coach can't bag skate his players after a bad loss? Lazy millennials ruin everything.

Is it justified: This was one of those issues where the backlash to the outrage started before the actual outrage even got off the ground. Most of us heard about the Oilers giving up their day off and thought "Huh, that's kind of weird." That was enough for the old-school types to get preemptively angry over how soft today's players (and fans!) have become. Why, back in the day the coach of losing team was allowed to drag one player of his choosing out to center ice and beat him to death with a goalie stick and we were all fine with it, dagnabbit.

Here's the thing: The Oilers didn't really lose a day off. They just shifted it to Wednesday, apparently with input and agreement from the players. So no, this wasn't all that big a deal. And you can certainly understand where Todd McLellan and the Oilers were coming from, as explained here.

But the point remains that the day off was part of the CBA. You may remember the CBA—it's that big complicated document that we apparently need to shut the whole league down over every few years. And almost all of it is terrible for the players. But occasionally, they manage to squeeze a tiny concession from the owners, and last time around it was four days off per month. As Elliotte Friedman explains, the coaches hate it, but a day off every week or so doesn't seem like too much to ask when you're putting your body on the line for eight straight months.

So you can see why this seemed fishy. After all, the Oilers' coaching staff is made up of grizzled NHL veterans, while their leadership group is a fresh-faced boy band. The optics weren't great. And even if they were, the NHLPA still needs to grieve this, because if they don't then every team will do it.

What happened with the Oilers was no big deal. But eventually some team will go overboard, and it makes sense to nip the whole thing in the bud now. So if you're outraged over coddled players whining their way out of practice, do what the Oilers should have done: Take the rest of the day off and see if you feel better tomorrow.

The NHL is celebrating its 100th season this year, and its doing it with outdoor games, a Top 100 players list that its already screwed up, and Wayne Gretzky. That's only slightly different from their 75th anniversary, which it celebrated with cardigans.

• Today we're headed back to Oct. 3, 1991. It's opening night of the 1991-92 season, and the league has decided to kick things off with a special Original Six night. Our host for this clip is the legendary Don Taylor, host of CKVU Vancouver's Sports Page. He's ready to guide us through our opening night highlights. His haircut is ready to steal your heart.

• "You've got to like these old unis." This is going to sound strange to today's fans, who are sick of teams changing their uniforms every few seasons and breaking out new throwbacks for any remotely important game, but back in 1991 this was really kind of cool and unique. We'd never seen throwback jerseys before. Well, other than during Leaf losses.

• Also, those coach outfits are amazing. I don't even mean that ironically. They're fantastic.

• Believe it or not, and I know this sounds crazy but stick with me: The Canadiens had a pregame ceremony where they honored their past. I know, right?

• In related news, Sam Pollock brushed up Cliff Fletcher in the hallway after the ceremony and walked away with the next three Maple Leaf first-round picks.

• The first goal is worth mentioning because of how strange it seems in hindsight. We get a winger taking a slapshot, followed by a goalie making a kick save, followed by another slapshot that goes in clean. None of those things ever happen in today's game. Back in 1991, it was just a regular hockey play.

• Check out the linesmen breaking up a scrum while wearing cardigans that are somehow even better than the coach's sweaters. Who was in charge of NHL marketing during opening week in 1991, and why did he only hold the job for one week?

• We speed through the rest of the highlights of a 4-3 Montreal win. Wendel Clark has three points in the losing effort, and he followed that up with five more at the Leafs home opener two nights later to give him eight points through two games. Chew on that, Auston Matthews.

• Next up are the Rangers and Bruins, which is introduced with a mention of the Rangers' 50-year Cup drought. Man, imagine cheering for an Original Six team that went into a milestone season without having won a Cup in a half-century. You'd probably be miserable and spiteful and drink all the time.

• You know, in hindsight, making fans in Vancouver watch highlights of the Rangers and Bruins while you talk about long Stanley Cup droughts feels kind of cruel.

• Hey look, it's Michael J. Fox. "Talk about back to the future!" That… actually doesn't make sense. I would have held out for the goal by Ken Hodge Jr. from one of the Sweeney brothers and dropped a Family Ties reference instead.

• The Bruins start strong, at one point peppering New York with multiple shots in a sequence that eventually ends with a 2-on-0 in the crease. It's so bad that today's Ranger fans instinctively start wondering how Dan Girardi got out there.

• This actually looks like an amazing game. It has all the early-90s hallmarks: Lots of goals, speedy forwards blowing by defensemen who can't actually skate, goalies falling down every few seconds for no reason… I miss what the NHL was before evil coaches taught everyone how to play hockey.

• Our last game features Detroit visiting Chicago. And oh look, what a surprise, the Blackhawks have the best throwback uniforms, who could have seen that coming.

• Jim Belushi shows up and pretends to punch Chris Chelios. "What a kidder." Yes, that's one way to put it. By the way, Belushi and Fox were part of a very weird celebrity captain thing the league did. I ranked them all over the summer, and while I won't expect you to read the whole thing, you really owe it to yourself to scroll down to see who the best one was. I promise you won't be disappointed.

• Who's the most early-90s Detroit Red Wing? It's definitely between Paul Ysebaert and Ray Sheppard, right?

• Hey look, Keith Primeau is stealing Jim Belushi's bit.

• It wouldn't be the Norris Division without a scrap, and it's a good one: Bob Probert vs. Stu "The Grim Reaper" Grimson. Fun fact: These two would switch teams within a few years. Bonus fun fact: They were both scary as hell.

• "Grimson protecting himself with his face." I love Don Taylor.

• We get a look at Jimmy Waite robbing Sergei Fedorov on a breakaway. Waite is starting because Ed Belfour is holding out for a new contract, and the Blackhawks' other backup goalie isn't very good.

• Probert goes at Grimson again and gets tossed, which means he has to walk down the flight of stairs that visiting teams had to navigate at the old Chicago Stadium. Old hockey arenas were the best. I'm amazed that nobody ever did a header and took out their entire team, domino-style.

• The game ends 3-3. We still had ties back then, because it hadn't occurred to anyone that we needed a one-on-one skills competition to settle games. Although let's be honest, if we'd had that concept back in 1991, it would have just been another Probert/Grimson fight.

Have a question, suggestion, old YouTube clip, or anything else you'd like to see included in this column? Email Sean at nhlgrabbag@gmail.com.