Meet Damir Raspiyev, a 21-year-old hockey player who single-handedly ended Barys Astana’s game against the Kunlun Red Star after he attempted to fight the entirety of the opposing team.
This is the "brawl" that caused Barys/Kunlun to end after 3 minutes. Damir Ryspayev should be banned from hockey. pic.twitter.com/b6OpcuUf5i
— Jeff Veillette (@JeffVeillette) August 8, 2016
Raspiyev isn’t well known for his scoring ability, but his 111 penalty minutes in 16 games for Barys Astana this season speak to more of the kind of hockey player he is. During the one-minute, 12-second clip, Raspiyev goes after three Red Star players — and circles back to another one — before diving head first into the Kunlun bench to go after some more.
Absent in all of this until the end are the officials, who on multiple occasions let Raspiyev go skate on his own to find another target. While two officials are trying to halt one of the smaller fights on the side of the ice, Raspiyev is free to go to and fro between the Red Star players.
Raspiyev should clearly not be allowed to step foot on a sheet of ice for some time, if not ever thanks to his stat sheet. The officials, too, played a big part in failing to defuse the tension, which has apparently sent a former Islanders draft pick to the hospital.
Though the game may be postponed, Barys Astana’s website now has a page linking to help for fans who want to get their money back from the match. “We apologize for the inconvenience,” indeed.
Update 8/9: According to the KHL’s website, Raspiyev has been banned from the league until further notice. Here’s a look at their reasoning below:
The League imposes the strictest punishments in cases of serious foul play, particularly of the kind which results in injury to opposing players, and also notes that Ryspayev has been a serial offender in this regard, in spite of previous disciplinary sanctions from the League and a stern warning issued to the player in January of this year.