Andrew Shaw had quite the meltdown late in Game 4 against the St. Louis Blues, and his pummeling of Alexander Steen after the final buzzer is perhaps the least concerning bit (see above).
Trailing 4-2 late in the game, Shaw took a two-minute penalty for interference on Jay Bouwmeester. It was an extremely poorly timed penalty, but that’s not that bad, right? It wasn’t, until he decided to give someone (we believe the referees) a couple middle fingers on his way to the box.
How he stayed in the game after that is curious.
But again, even that wasn’t the worst part of Shaw’s night. While he was sitting in the penalty box, he was yelling at Blues players (or perhaps the refs again) and appeared to use a homophobic slur.
After the game Chicago Tribune writer Chris Kuc asked Shaw if he used a slur when he was in the penalty box, to which Shaw replied “I don’t know what I said. I wasn’t happy with the call.”
After his penalty expired, Shaw returned to the ice for the final faceoff in St. Louis’ end. He started the post-game shenanigans when he jumped on Blues forward Alexander Steen (although Steen may have sticked him in the groin) and started throwing punches. When the linesmen broke them up, Shaw became engaged with Alex Pietrangelo until the scrum died down. At the 20:00 mark of the period on the game sheet, all 11 skaters on the ice (Chicago’s goalie was pulled) received a misconduct. Shaw and Steen both picked up roughing minors, while Shaw got an extra minor for unsportsmanlike conduct.
LISTEN: Matthew Barnaby talks Andrew Shaw on Dean Blundell & Co.
A selfish late-game penalty, a couple of birds on his way to the box, attacking a player and throwing cheap punches after the final horn — and none of that was the worst part of Shaw’s night.
After the game, people took notice of the slur he appeared to scream in the box, for which the NHL is being encouraged to act upon.
The Blues won the game 4-3 and now hold a 3-1 series lead.
Shaw is on an expiring contract and will become an RFA this summer.
