On the one hand, Simon Benoit got absolutely destroyed in his Monday night tilt with Utah's Michael Kesselring. The Leafs blueliner took five or six consecutive unblocked shots to the dome, and was pulled down to the ice, and dislocated his thumb and had to pop it back in while sitting in the penalty box. On the other hand, Benoit was captured in some impossibly cool photos going airborne with an attempted Superman punch. Some might argue that looking cool is the most important part of hockey, and life. Not me, though.
This is actually one of Benoit's go-to moves. He kicked off a scrap last season with Erik Gudbranson by leaving his skates, before getting himself pummeled (getting pummeled also appears to be a go-to move for Benoit). “I think just in the moment I felt I had an opening there, and I just took it,” he said.
The dust-up came on the faceoff after Benoit scored his first goal of the season to puts the Leafs up 3-0—he must have felt absolutely invincible. Before Kesselring proved him eminently vincible, anyway. The Leafs would hang on to win 4-3 in a shootout.
For his part, Kesselring saw nothing wrong with Benoit's leaping opener. "That was a little interesting," the UHC defenseman said. "But whatever, it’s a fight, right? You sign up for it."
I hope Benoit got to enjoy the moment he slipped the surly bonds of Earth, before he was humbled by the even surlier fists of hubris.
