Linesman gets caught in line brawl between Ducks and Sharks
Sunday's preseason contest between the Ducks and Sharks in Anaheim brought a rare sighting: a line brawl during a meaningless preseason game.
Though the shenanigans were brief and relatively uneventful, they did involve an unlikely participant right in the middle. A linesman did his best to de-escalate the situation but only found himself sandwiched between angry players.
The poor official tried to break up the initial altercation between San Jose's Tommy Wingels and Anaheim's Andrew Cogliano (and Ryan Kesler, who was the third man in) but couldn't manage to separate the parties before reinforcements arrived. He was quickly engulfed in a swarm of players and dragged down to the ice surface.
Fortunately, things settled down pretty quickly and it didn't look like the official caught any rogue punches or ended up worse for the wear. That's about the best you can hope for in that precarious situation.
