IceDogs suffered different kind of league discipline during OHL playoff series

Misbehaviour in a movie theatre has resulted in an out-of-the-box kind of discipline for the Niagara IceDogs in their first-round playoff series.

Sanctions were imposed on the team after an incident during a showing of “Black Bag” at a movie theatre in a Niagara Falls mall on March 25, Josh Sweetland of the OHL confirmed in a story in the St. Catharines Standard on Tuesday.

The Standard was told by a moviegoer that the “absolutely egregious behaviour” included yelling and “throwing food across the room.”

The discipline, as laid out in a statement also sent by Sweetland to Sportsnet, is that “each player in the IceDogs lineup will be required to sit for one period of their first-round series against the Barrie Colts, a sanction that began in Game 1 of the series on Thursday, March 27.”

Sweetland said the team’s behaviour was “detrimental to the reputation and integrity of both the team and the OHL” and added no further action was going to be taken by the league.

As a result, in last week’s game, the players took their respective turns sitting out, including the goalies. All the players have now taken their turns sitting out, so the IceDogs are theoretically back to full strength.

“This discipline reinforces the league’s standard that such behaviour will not be tolerated, regardless of whether it occurs during the regular season or playoffs,” the OHL statement reads.

The IceDogs trail the first round OHL best-of-seven playoff series 2-0 after a 7-5 loss to the Colts on Monday.

Niagara has had its fair share of issues this season, leading to an ongoing investigation by a Toronto law firm specializing in workplace law of the team’s organizational culture.