In an effort to make some use of this waste of bandwidth - dynastydays from the oilers site went to a rangers fan site to try and get the scoop on what happened....
http://www.rangersrush.com/Forum.html (ranger/knight game thread)
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Let me point out that I was no more than a couple of feet away from the incident at the end of the game and well within earshot. So:
THE SCOOP!!!
At the end of the game, Schremp stood in his usual spot to tap his teammates as they left the ice. The fans at ice level were heckling him as usual. One guy stood up directly behind him and seemed to yell at him through the seam in the glass. This fan's head was about an inch away from Schremp's at this point.
All of a sudden, Schremp goes nuts and tries to get at the fan. First he banged his stick on the glass and then proceeded to try and spear/jab the guy through the corner opening that widens when the doors are open. The fan, who is a regular and is around 18-20 years old, stayed far enough away so as to not get hit with the stick and along with his buddy, taunted the irate Schremp who continued to try and get at the fan. A couple of other Knight players banged on the glass and stuff but one player (I didn't get the number) grabbed Schremp from behind, kept him from getting closer to the fan, and yelled in his ear for him to stop and get to the room. He was finally able to get Schremp out of there.
A rink attendant came out from under the stands and said that Schremp said on his way to the room that he was spat on. I take it by the fan who was an inch away from him while he was standing by the glass. An older fan then complained that his wife was hit by Schremp's stick, albeit inadvertantly as he was trying to get at the fan he obviously felt spat on him through the glass. For the record, she didn't look injured at all. Also, I didn't see him make contact with anyone with the stick.
MY TAKE ON IT:
After every period and after every game, Rob Schremp scoops up the puck if he can get it and tosses it to a kid as he is going off the ice. He has done this for as long as he has played at the Aud. I go to every Ranger game and see it first hand as I sit right at the zamboni entrance.
Despite the amount of heckling, etc that rains down on the Knights players as they leave the ice, Schremp has never said anything back. He always conducts himself responsibly - even during the times where the Knights players mocked the Ranger fans over the last couple years after London wins at the Aud. This practice started three years ago and through it all, Schremp has never involved himself in any of this. He always seems more interested in giving the puck to a kid.
During tonight's game, as he was leaving the ice between periods, he was singled out by some hecklers as being a hotdog, etc etc. What did Schremp do? He, as usual, proceeded to toss the puck to a kid. At the end of one period, he tossed the puck to a kid and the kid dropped it accidently. The kid DID NOT toss/throw it back as was said above. Schremp took the time to chase down the rolling puck and toss it again to the kid making sure he got the puck - all while a few fans heckled him.
Personally, I can't for the life of me see him trying to attack a fan just because he was being heckled. IMO, he is a class act! He is the lone bright spot on an otherwise brutal, unsportsmanlike, crew of a-holes that I've seen darken ours doors at the Aud in years.
As far as I'm concerned, if Rob Schremp says he acted the way he did because he was spat on on the fan, then I believe him. As a matter of fact, I'd bet a week's pay on it.
I doubt that the fan will be penalized in any way as it would be tough to prove that he actually spat at Schremp. I also don't condone the way Schremp conducted himself trying to spear/jab the fan with his stick. Hey, I was right there! If he would have hit the fan with one of those jabs, the fan would have been in a lot of trouble. He'd have been seriously injured for sure.
I also don't condone the way the other fans threw stuff at Schremp and his teammates as this thing played itself out. There's no excuse really but I do understand why they did it. Again, this didn't happen until AFTER Schremp started after the fan with his stick.
Whether anything comes of this from the league or not is questionable. There was no mention about the incident during the highlights shown on sportsnet or on the local Kitchener news.