Colorado Avalanche winger Cody McLeod is an energy player. His job is to inspire his teammates while inciting opponents. He fights, a lot. Apparently he’s a talented chirper that can make even veteran color analyst Peter McNabb blush. McLeod gets up in opponents’ faces ever game all game long.
However, even by those standards, McLeod’s game against the Dallas Stars was one for the ages.
First Fight
McLeod got started early. Barely three minutes into the game he and Dallas left wing Curtis McKenzie were working the boards. McLeod got a little rough with the 23-year-old winger, and McKenzie got a little rough back. The two had a little conversation about it, and they decided to go.
McKenzie’s trying to make a name for himself amongst the NHL fighters, having already dropped the gloves with known tough guys Jordin Tootoo and Brad Richardson. Hopefully those bouts went a little better for the rookie, because McLeod routed him.
McKenzie may have gotten a little jab into McLeod’s ribs, but the rest was all McLeod pummeling his head. In the end McLeod finished hit with a roundhouse that sent McKenzie flying to the ice.
McLeod’s Scrum
The nice thing about McLeod is that he doesn’t hold grudges. If he fought you already, that doesn’t mean he’s going to have it out for you the rest of the game — unless you ask for it. McKenzie didn’t seem to ask for it.
Indeed, McLeod is very democratic in his punishment. He’d like to score goals or set up goals or prevent goals. However, he understands his main role is to get under opponents’ skin.
Well, in the Dallas game, he single-handedly made the Stars night hell. If a Dallas player was unfortunate enough to work the boards at the same time as McLeod, that player was going to get a little extra physical play from the Avalanche winger.
Stars defenseman Jason Demers discovered that fact. The two went into the boards behind the Avalanche goal. McLeod gave Demers and extra little jab to the face. It wasn’t nice, but McLeod isn’t in the business of being nice. He stood there, ready to fight if Demers wanted to take exception with the treatment.
However, the rest of the skaters joined the scrum, and Demers slunk away. Actually, McKenzie did skate up to McLeod, but the referees kept them separated. The rest of the players partnered up — including little Tyson Barrie with big Jordie Benn — but the referees stopped everything. (The only partnering that had any real potential was Avalanche Paul Carey with Vernon Fiddler.)
Demers was skating near the Dallas bench apparently nursing a cut lip — and a bruised ego. McLeod was cool as a cucumber, propped on an elbow, having a conversation with teammate Nathan MacKinnon. Demers finally seemed to decide to get justice. He skated with purpose toward McLeod, who was shielded by a referee. McLeod must have eyes in the back of his head, though, because he turned just in time to get sucker-punched by Demers.
McLeod whirled around and went straight for Demers. However, the referee to a hold of him, keeping the two players separated.
Dallas left wing Ryan Garbutt also laid a restraining hand on McLeod. This was not a good idea — McLeod gave him two lightning fast jabs in the head area. More players joined the scrum, and the referee secured his hold on McLeod.
Demers used this security to jab McLeod a couple more times — essentially sucker punching him again since McLeod’s hands were tied by by the referee. Demers even for the ref in the back of the head once.
Yet for all that, it was McLeod who got a fighting major, a 10-minute misconduct and a game misconduct. He got booted from the game. In all, he received 30 minutes of penalties. Demers, who sucker punched McLeod and even got the ref, only received a 10-minute misconduct and a roughing penalty.
I think it was McLeod’s handling of Garbutt that got him booted from the game. It was pretty funny, though, to see his lightning fists smacking Garbutt.
First Star
For his efforts, McLeod was named the first star of the game. Some people may not agree with this — he didn’t record a single point all night. However, McLeod’s contributions to the game were just as significant to the team.
Head coach Patrick Roy said of McLeod in his post-game presser:
"“He’s been outstanding for the last month or so. He competes hard, finishes checks, I love his intensity.”"
Denver Post writer Mike Chambers selected McLeod. He wrote about his rationale for the selection:
"“We aren’t sure why McLeod got the additional game misconduct, and the crowd of 18,087 didn’t want to see McLeod go.So I figured I’d help bring him back to do the Altitude postgame No. 1 star interview — based primarily on his rugged play when he still had his skates on.”"
For perhaps the first time in Avalanche history, though, a player got interviewed as a first star while already in his street clothes.