A Los Angeles Kings fan named Clark Wong has filed a battery report against Corey Crawford, alleging that the Chicago Blackhawks goalie sprayed him in the face with a water bottle during Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals on Monday. Crawford is now under investigation by the LAPD.
Wong, 27, told TMZ that he was heckling Crawford from behind the Blackhawks bench when he was pulled from the game during the third period. As Wong was taunting Crawford, he says Crawford squirted him in the face with a water bottle. Wong was ejected from the arena after the exchange, but he filed a police report before leaving.
Here’s where it really gets good. Wong believes that the bottle Crawford sprayed him with contained a lot of backwash and has caused serious irritation in his eyes. He claims he needs to see a doctor to have his eyes examined. Wong says he noticed the pain as he was leaving the Staples Center.
While we don’t know for sure if there was something other than water in the bottle (Gatorade?) that irritated Wong’s eyes, backwash seems unlikely. Almost all players take the Phil Kessel approach to hydrating during games. Rarely do you ever see a player doing anything other than squirting water into his mouth. The idea behind a sports water bottle is you don’t have to put your mouth on it.
I don’t see this holding up in court. Then again, this is America.
