Jim Souhan: Sucker punch supplies fuel as series fires up

Brad May's attack on Kim Johnsson has Wild players and the team's GM fighting mad.

By Jim Souhan, Star Tribune

Last update: April 18, 2007 - 10:37 PM

ANAHEIM, CALIF. -- It took four games, a season-extending victory, a brawl and a sucker punch, but we finally have a playoff series in which "Duck" has graduated from noun to verb.

As the Wild and Ducks convened Wednesday at the Honda Center, we learned that Brad May, the guy who punched Kim Johnsson (known by his teammates as The Dalai Lama on Skates), was "at the doctor."

Was May visiting Johnsson, who can't eat applesauce without a blender, and was convalescing at a Minnesota hospital?

Or visiting The Fight Doctor, Ferdie Pacheco, for advice on how to survive the inevitable attack of Wild enforcer Derek Boogaard, a one-round bout billed for sometime this fall.

To recap: The Wild beat Anaheim 4-1 in Game 4 on Tuesday night at the X. Near the end, the Wild's Adam Hall scrapped with Anaheim's Kent Huskins, whose teammate Shawn Thornton jumped in. Ducks enforcer Brad May dropped his gloves and looked for someone to hit.

Johnsson, who wouldn't drop his gloves to play the piano, skated into range and caught May's punch flush.

Johnsson went to the ice, face-first. May looked as if he was lifting Johnsson to deliver another blow when he realized that Johnsson wasn't moving.

Johnsson is badly hurt and probably would miss the rest of the playoffs even if the Wild surged to the finals. May went to the doctor, apparently to check on the hand he injured on Johnsson's face, and later Wednesday was suspended for three games.

Wild GM Doug Risebrough stormed around the tunnels of the Honda Center on Wednesday, looking like he'd fight May himself. And Ducks coach Randy Carlyle did his best imitation of Michael Corleone at a congressional hearing, offering this fact-defying version of events:

"Well, I didn't get the video of it until about five minutes before we went on the ice," he said. "It wasn't made available to us through the replays of last night's hockey game. I guess it was a hand-held camera by somebody other than the broadcast crew that was covering it. The league sends it to us.

"What I saw was a scuffle between Adam Hall and Kent Huskins and it was Shawn Thornton getting involved, and there was a push, and then May and Johnsson came together, and then punches started flying."

You see, in Carlyle's world, Bambi's mother provoked the deer hunter.

In Carlyle's world, May didn't punch Johnsson once. No, punches threw themselves in great number and variety, as May ducked under Johnsson's haymakers and somehow saved himself and the republic by delivering an unfortunate but necessary blow for liberty and freedom.

People who watched the game tape repeatedly told me the Wild's version of events is accurate, and asked if I could get hold of some of Carlyle's, uh, prescription. But Carlyle apparently is content with the Zapruder version.

By the end of his press session, Carlyle had me believing that, if you played the game tape backward, you'd hear Johnsson screaming "I am Beelzebub!" and prodding May with a red pitchfork.

Here's the Wild's version of events and assessment of May, from the loquacious Boogaard: "He's a mush-head."

Said Wild coach Jacques Lemaire, sounding disappointed as a parent the morning after prom night: "I didn't think [May] was that kind of guy."

And so in Game 4 the Wild lost their best stickhandling defenseman and gained a cause. Monday, they looked depressed. Wednesday, they were skating around the Honda rink like Roseau kids before a championship game.

The NHL truism holds that a playoff series doesn't start until someone wins a road game.

For the Wild, this series didn't start until they won a home game and lost a key player.

Duck? Finally, the Wild has acquired a disdain for the noun, and the verb.

Jim Souhan can be heard Sundays from 10 a.m.-noon on AM-1500 KSTP. jsouhan@startribune.com

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