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Breaking Down Bryan Rust’s Bizarre, Soft Behavior in His Game 3 Scrum With Travis Konecny
By Matt Schultz
Published:
The Flyers went up 3-0 in their series against the Penguins with a 5-2 win in South Philly on Wednesday night, and there’s a ton to get into: What does this win mean? What would sweeping the Penguins mean? Has the Flyers’ play so far in this postseason moved them into the conversation of real, dangerous contenders?
We’re going to get to all of that – soon. Right now, honestly, it’s a little tough for me to consider that kind of big picture stuff, because I can’t stop thinking about the scrum between Travis Konecny and Bryan Rust:
This was a truly baffling display, and from an anthropological perspective, I’m fascinated by it. I see myself as a student of this vast and mysterious world. It’s in my nature to want to understand – and today, I can’t help but look for answers as to what the hell happened here.
Watching the footage back, my mind is flooded with questions:
- What was done to set off Bryan Rust this extremely? (Devil’s Advocate argument will say, “Hey, Konecny elbowed him first, and that’s why he went off.” My reply to that is twofold: First, pushing, elbowing, and cross-checking in front of the net is normal, negligible playoff stuff. Rust is supposed to clear the net; TK is supposed to push back. If that was the end of it, it would’ve been no-calls all around. Second reply: The elbow doesn’t reasonably justify what followed it, which leads me to…)
- Why would Rust tackle Konecny to the ice?
- After the tackle was made, what possessed Rust to repeatedly punch TK in the head?
- Doesn’t it seem strange to punch someone in the back of the head? The front of the head is where one’s eyes are; if you’re going to punch someone, the decent thing to do is to at least allow them to see it coming, no?
- When the ref came to break up the scrum, Rust stood up. Then, inexplicably, he began throwing more punches at Konecny’s head – despite the fact that he was still on the ice and couldn’t fight back because the ref was in his way. What was going through Rust’s mind at that moment?
Finally, the big question I’d really like answered is: when Konecny finally got on his feet, looked Rust square in the face, and dropped his gloves… why did Rust turn his back? Why wouldn’t Rust fight him? He was so intent on punching Konecny in the face just moments ago while hiding behind the ref. Why is it, then, when Rust had the opportunity to settle the score fairly, he chose not to?
As an anthropologist, it’s not my job to judge. It’s to learn. Having said that, though, I would completely understand if others – Flyers fans, for example – were to look at this behavior and call it… soft.
Yes… Quite soft, indeed…
Sadly, as is the case with many of life’s biggest questions, we’re not likely to get any solid answers on this strange Rust behavior. All we can do now, I suppose, is take solace in the fact that Rust got so frustrated playing against TK that he acted like a weirdo spaz, that the Flyers won, and that they’re one win away from putting the final nail in the Penguins’ coffin.
Matt Schultz is a comedy and sports writer from Philadelphia. He’s written extensively for ClickHole, The Onion, and Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco. His work has been featured in Vulture, Deadspin, The A.V. Club, Paste Magazine, and other publications. Much of his sports journalism can be found on college basketball websites that don’t exist anymore (PhilaHoops Heads rise up…)