Yes
Tom Wilson is:
Satan, and a saint; a contrast in duality. And my upcoming book title.
Fighting and sticking up for teammates is a great opportunity for team building, as
@twabby says. However, Colorado missed an opportunity to do just that, as their demoralizing season slowly goes down the tubes. Sure 3rd mans have all but been eliminated from the game what with heavy handed Bentman thinking its good for the game, but as a result guys like Cole are left helpless.
I do have to say that I thought the liners would jump in before they did. Tommy Gun had served up enough justice about halfway through, and it seemed like they started to move in, but then backed off.
I love the 3rd man. They never really evolved into being a big donnybrook or bench clearer, and the fans would almost universally go nuts watching 10 men form a giant pile on the ice. As a fan either your guy won the fight, or your guy got saved. All fans were happy, right?
I think it was good for hockey. A zillion people just sitting back and watching a guy getting beaten in a one sided fight, eventually someone has to step in as folks become uneasy. Watch boxing, or more so MMA, they move in quick. Hockey, nope, linesman just let the poor guy suffer while pretending like they are helpless to intervene.
We can assume its a part of new age NHL justice, with the linesman dancing around pretending to look for a safe entry, basically stalling already having decided that the guy eating punches deserved it. Yes, the linesman are essentially on ice DOPES.
I tried to find 3rd man tubbage from yesteryear - there is not much. Here is a proper donnybrook. I bet Donny Brook was a real badass.