Burnside: Tyson Nash explains his controversial call on the Jay Beagle/Troy Terry fight

Sometimes it would be easier if there was no context, just the black and white of it, or at least what we presume to be the black and white of it.

Without such context, it would be easier to start swinging for the fences on the lamentable encounter between veteran Arizona Coyotes forward Jay Beagle and Anaheim’s young scoring star Troy Terry late in game won handily Friday by Anaheim and nearing the end of a game in which Terry’s dynamic teammate Trevor Zegras scored a flashy lacrosse-style goal against the grossly undermanned Coyotes.

Without context, it would be easy to join the fray burying longtime NHLer and Arizona analyst Tyson Nash who turned a fairly typical late-game melee into a cause celebre by saying that, by “skilling it up,” the young Ducks should have expected a punch in the mouth, which is what they got courtesy of Beagle.

But then we called Nash and we were reminded that one of the reasons it seems so difficult for the game to chart a clear path forward in terms of its identity is that it’s not black and white. It’s complex.

Nothing justifies a young man who never even got his gloves off getting pummelled so badly that he couldn’t suit up for Sunday’s game against Edmonton.

Surely we should all be able to agree on that, no?

But as for how it got to that point? And how this entire situation speaks to the nuances of the game? Well, let’s start with Nash, who is a bit nervous talking about the incident given he’s been torched from all angles on social media for his commentary, including a robust call for his job.

But Nash is also happy to have a chance to add context or at least rationalization of what transpired from his perspective standing between the benches at ice level.

First, Nash would like to clear up the misconception that he has no time for skill in the game.

“I’m a huge fan of the skill,” Nash said. In fact he wishes people had been watching the entire broadcast when he and play-by-play veteran Matt McConnell were gushing about Zegras and Terry.

“We literally stroked them all game long, from start to finish,” Nash said.

As for the lacrosse-style goal – some call it ‘The Michigan’ – that has become a fad among some of the talented young stars in the game in the last couple of seasons, Nash said he loved it, and his call of the goal reflected that, too, he said. In fact, the idea that the goal was somehow the catalyst to what transpired near the end of the game that seems not to be the case at all.

Both the Ducks and the Coyotes are miles from where they want to be right now. The Ducks have seen a terrific start taper off into a death march to the end of the season and a fourth straight playoff miss. They were winless in 11 heading into Friday’s tilt against an Arizona team that has sold off most of its key assets in the last year or so and has been further crippled by injury, including the disheartening loss of talented forward Clayton Keller to a gruesome leg injury last week.

As the Ducks built their lead, Nash said the interplay between the Ducks players and the Coyotes became incendiary.

There was chirping of the Coyotes by the Ducks, smirks as the Ducks players passed the Arizona bench as the score became more lopsided, Nash said. The Ducks were enjoying the moment in Arizona and they were letting the Coyotes know it, he added. If people had been in Nash’s position between the benches and saw and heard what he’d seen and heard, “I don’t think they would have been shocked by what happened,” Nash said.

With less than six minutes left in the game, Zegras can be seen giving a poke at a loose puck under or near Arizona netminder Josef Korenar. That led to Beagle cross-checking Zegras in the back and then ultimately pounding Terry, who skated through the crease area and became engaged with an angry Beagle.

What set the social media world afire, though, was Nash’s response to the fight.

Nash rationalized the beating by saying, “That’s the problem sometimes with these young players, you want to embarrass guys, and you want to skill it up, you better be prepared to get punched in the mouth.” Nash also praised Beagle’s response. “He’s watching these young kids dance around, make fancy moves,” Nash said.

Does Nash regret his characterization of what happened? Nope.

He does regret, though, that in live television there wasn’t enough time to put it all in context, the build-up to what happened near the end of the game leading to the almost inevitable reaction from the Coyotes.

“We were like, look at this pass, look at this play, oh my gosh, the hand-eye co-ordination,” Nash said of their call as relating to the Ducks’ skill-set. “But they’re skating around like the Harlem Globetrotters.”

And what was Zegras doing poking at the Coyotes’ netminder with the game well in hand, Nash wondered? It’s the kind of play and the kind of scenario – the game being out of hand – that would produce a carbon copy reaction in every NHL rink.

“That’s going to happen everywhere,” Nash said. “If people want to be mad, why is he (Zegras) out on the ice? Why is he poking the goalie?”

In the end Terry, who had according to Hockeyfights.com never been in an NHL fight and really still hasn’t, ended up paying a physical price he shouldn’t have had to no matter the circumstances.

Nash and Beagle have both been vilified on social media. And yet Beagle, according to Hockeyfights.com, had not been in a regular season NHL fight since 2011. A glue guy and much-loved figure in Washington during his long stint with the Capitals, Beagle, 36, is nearing the end of his career.

“I will say this: Beagle is the furthest thing from dirty,” Nash said. “We’re not talking about Bob Probert. We’re talking about Jay Beagle.”

And it’s unlikely Beagle took the time to note whom he was punching.

“He didn’t know who he was fighting,” Nash insisted.

Over the years I have always enjoyed my interactions with Beagle, a go-to guy in the Caps room for many years reflecting his candor and the respect he was afforded by his peers. And likewise, Nash has always been an upbeat guy whenever we have crossed paths, which is saying something given the sorry state of the Coyotes franchise for many years.

Terry and Zegras, of course, are at the opposite end of the NHL spectrum: young, skilled and both were in Vegas at the All-Star weekend recently.

Earlier this year, I spent some time chatting with Terry and others who knew him well about his breakout season. We then caught up with him again at All-Star in Vegas. Thoughtful and introspective, Terry is part of that next generation of NHL stars that needs to have a light shone on him because fans will and should gravitate towards him.

The former U.S. Olympian is a great role model for young players everywhere and, needless to say, he’s a terrific player.

And It’s not just the individuals who pay a price. It’s the league. It’s the Arizona Coyotes. It’s the game.

Maybe the lesson here is that words matter.

Nash is like every local color analyst around the NHL providing context and, sure, entertainment, for the local teams in their markets. Their voices are important because they help fans connect to their teams and their voices are especially important in markets that are smaller or have struggled to create and maintain a foothold in those marketplaces like in Arizona. It’s a tightrope act for most in Nash’s position because the expectation is they color their commentary to keep the home team in as positive light as possible.

To not be aware of that very defined line is to court unemployment. It doesn’t excuse Nash’s choice of words in this case, which brought unwanted attention to a franchise that has been working diligently to rewrite its narrative. The Coyotes were involved in the uplifting NHL Bound documentary as part of an innovative program opening the doors to BIPOC coaches to get a taste of NHL coaching (we wrote about it here).

The team has done things internally like flying Phil Kessel home from a road trip for the birth of his first child. They are putting a brave face on playing for the next few seasons at Arizona State University’s multi-plex. They are working to create stronger bonds with different groups in their community.

This incident chips away at that work, that goodwill. That’s the reality. Had Nash chosen different words, if he had been able to set the stage more fully or framed the incident in a different, more accurate manner, it wouldn’t have become the topic of conversation it is around the hockey world.

“It’s live TV, you don’t get a chance to say it all,” Nash said. “(If only) I would have explained myself to fans, to the Twitterverse, what happened all game long.”

Instead people seized on the “skilling it up” quip which reinforced the popular theme that assaults the league that times have not changed, that the NHL and its teams are backwards and unwilling or unable to accept change. Along with the physical price Troy Terry paid and is paying, it’s also a price being paid on a broader canvas. And that is more than a little regrettable.