The fining of Buffalo Sabres coach Ron Rolston for “player selection” has got some NHL coaches irate.

You can’t blame them.

Whether you agree with the presence of so-called enforcers or fighting in the NHL or what seems to be the increasingly indecipherable “Code,” putting coaches in a position where the sand has suddenly shifted beneath their feet has got them questioning what this means moving forward.

One coach who spoke to QMI Agency Wednesday afternoon was in the process of contacting his colleagues to form a united front to question the league on the decision to fine Rolston. The rookie Sabres coach had tough guy John Scott on the ice in Sunday night’s pre-season game against the Toronto Maple Leafs and all hell broke loose after Scott had an altercation with Leafs forward Phil Kessel.

The Scott-Kessel situation came in the wake of a fight between Sabres forward Corey Tropp and Leafs tough guy Jamie Devane in which Tropp was bloodied when his head hit the ice after getting slugged by Devane.

Rolston responded the way coaches have been responding to that situation for decades, by having a tough guy like Scott on the ice. Scott was already on the ice and Rolston, who didn’t have the last change as the visitor, left him out there for the ensuing face-off.

Leafs coach Randy Carlyle tried to defuse the situation by putting his skilled guys on the ice, but the decision backfired when Scott went after Kessel and the Leafs star tried to chop his aggressor down.

One coach contacted by QMI was fuming with the decision to fine Rolston.

“So what am I supposed to do now?” he mused. “Do I call the ref over and call timeout so I can call (league vice-president of hockey operations) Colie Campbell and ask him who I can put on the ice?”

He said he was upset enough over the fine that he was thinking about refusing to do in-game interviews as a protest.

“What (Rolston) did was pretty much what a lot of us would have done in those circumstances,” said another coach. “Now the league is going to tell who we can and who can’t put on the ice? I have no problem with discipline for our actions, but dictating ‘player selection’ crosses a line in my mind.”

Another coach said life is tough enough for coaches with the pressure to win in this salary cap era and the chill that will come in the wake of the fine to Rolston makes their job even thougher.

“If I’m in that kind of situation and I don’t put a guy out there to protect my players, the guys on the bench are going to look at me and say to themselves, ‘what’s this guy doing?’ My manager is going to ask me why I’m not protecting my players and the owner is going to ask my manager why I’m not protecting my players. The next thing you know, those guys are going to decide they are going to get somebody who is going to protect their players.”

You can argue about the “The Code,” and the future of fighting in hockey and the place of guys like John Scott in the game. The role of fighting and the enforcer appears to be on the wane, but it looks like it’s going to be years before the anti-fighting faction finally can claim victory in the debate.

In the meantime, NHL coaches are concerned with winning tonight and keeping their jobs. The Rolston fine, in the minds of some coaches, is a serious deviation in the status quo.

FINE BEFUDDLES SABRES

The decision by the NHL to fine Buffalo Sabres coach Ron Rolston for “player selection,” had peers angry and at least of his players scratching his head.

Rolston was fined what is believed to be $10,000 after he had enforcer John Scott remain on the ice for a face-off and an altercation ensued between Scott and Toronto Maple Leafs winger Phil Kessel Sunday night.

With the fine, the league basically said Rolston was responsible for what turned into a line brawl.

“I don’t know what kind of precedent that sets but I never knew you couldn’t put who you want on the ice,” Sabres winger Steve Ott told The Buffalo News on Wednesday. “That’s a very confusing thing. I don’t understand how they came about it.”

Rolston also chimed in.

“It’s part of what they (league executives) do,” he said. “They have to make a decision on what’s best for the league. Those are things we can’t control, so we do what is handed down and go from there. It’s because it was John. It’s just more reputation, but he had played the whole game, played well and was playing a good game for us. He had an assist on the first goal. He’s worked hard on his game to play hockey too. But I think obviously reputation is a big part of that.”

The fine caught Scott off guard.

“I was pretty surprised. I didn’t expect that,” Scott said. “I was a little shocked by it ... It was strange because I was already on the ice and we had first change. I think it’s foreign territory as far as player selection and coaches getting fined. “

According to The Buffalo News, Scott had already played 8:47 in the game and the Sabres bench was light three forwards.

“I don’t think it was that unrealistic I would be out there,” said Scott.

chris.stevenson@sunmedia.ca

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