Brawl video goes viral; Estrada is suspended; Reign react.

In case you missed Saturday’s game-ending brawl between the Reign and Bakersfield Condors, here is the YouTube video:

A couple things about this video:


1, It’s made the rounds and then some – ESPN, ESPN.com Yahoo.com, even the front page of sport.sk, which is based in Slovakia.

2, It was uploaded by the Bakersfield Condors to their official YouTube channel.

The Reign’s biggest point of contention Monday was not with anything that was done by the Condors – Estrada said Ian McKenzie’s check was “probably a clean hit” – but something that was said.

After Estrada jumped in to an altercation between Bakersfield’s Justin Pender and Ontario defenseman Chris Huxley Mike Montgomery, Condors color commentator Ryan Holt calls Estrada’s actions “gutless.” (You can hear this at the 4:20 mark of the YouTube clip.) That drew the ire of Estrada and Reign coach Jason Christie.

Estrada said he explained in an e-mail to Condors play-by-play man Kevin Bartl that he had been provoked by Pender (there’s evidence of this at the 1:25 mark of the video). Bartl, according to Estrada, replied with an apology.

Estrada and Condors defenseman Tyson Gimblett were both suspended one game by the ECHL; Estrada will miss tomorrow’s game against the Alaska Aces.

Christie thinks Holt, the Condors’ color commentator, should be disciplined.

“I really like how our guys stuck together. That’s hockey,” Christie said. “You’re going to have those days and those situations. I don’t like the of how they can sit there and criticize my players because they work hard and they compete. They’re getting called soft, they’re getting called — their radio guy called them gutless – that’s unfair. We’ve got a guy who’s an honest player and survived a plane crash and they’ve got a radio guy calling them gutless. I’d like to re-visit that avenue, if there is a way.

“If it helps them sell a couple more tickets here and there, that’s great,” the coach continued. “I’m just not a big fan of probably a guy who’s never played the game, don’t know much about him, but to call somebody gutless it doesn’t sit well.

“When the players are held accountable, why shouldn’t this guy be held accountable? I think it’s a black eye on our league, this guy saying that stuff.”

More in tomorrow’s editions of the Sun and Daily Bulletin

This entry was posted in Ontario Reign/ECHL and tagged , , by J.P. Hoornstra. Bookmark the permalink.

About J.P. Hoornstra

J.P. Hoornstra covers the Dodgers, Angels and Major League Baseball for the Orange County Register, Los Angeles Daily News, Long Beach Press-Telegram, Torrance Daily Breeze, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star-News, San Bernardino Sun, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Whittier Daily News and Redlands Daily Facts. Before taking the beat in 2012, J.P. covered the NHL for four years. UCLA gave him a degree once upon a time; when he graduated on schedule, he missed getting Arnold Schwarzenegger's autograph on his diploma by five months.