Jaromir Jagr: “I’ve never seen a fight like this before”

Jaromir Jagr: “I’ve never seen a fight like this before” (Photo © khl.ru)

Jaromir Jagr, playing for Avangard Omsk of the KHL, spoke about the yesterday’s massive brawl in the game against Vityaz Chekhov.

The game was canceled because there was not enough players to continue the match as the lion’s share of them got game misconducts. Jagr himself fought against Darcy Verot.

RussianHockeyFans.com offers you a translation of this Jagr interview to Sovsport.ru.

Jagr: “I’ve never seen anything like this before. I have never even heard of such situations. And of course it never happened in the NHL when I was playing there. It just couldn’t happen.

Why not?
Jagr: “The rules. If players fight during the warm-up or jump from the bench to the ice during a fight they can get suspended for 20 games. And it means losing a quarter of the salary. To tell you more, the suspension can be even more severe — six months or a year. No one would like to get a one-year suspension as a result of stupid behavior.”

In your opinion, why did this brawl start?
Jagr: “Because their tough guy Darcy Verot threw the puck at one of our players. Then he skated to another our player at the red line and speared him.”

And how did it happen that you fought Verot? On the video there are you standing near Verot and in the next moment he punches you in the face. As you were not ready for this punch you fell down. Then you get up and got a grip on him. It looked like Greco-Roman wrestling.
Jagr: “If you’re a tough guy you should respect the honor code. There were people fighting around us and I was holding Verot. Then he told me: “Ok, we are done. No fighting”. I released his hand and in a second he punched me in the face. I didn’t see that coming and that’s why I fell down.”

That’s just mean
Jagr: “Yes. But this is what kind of a person Verot is.”