from Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch,

With 17 seconds left in regulation on Tuesday, Blue Jackets left wing Scott Hartnell and Red Wings defenseman Brendan Smith traded stick swings before taking off their gloves and squaring to fight.

That's when linesman Scott Driscoll stepped in to pull the two players apart, drawing boos from the crowd and curious expressions from the players.

"It's too bad the refs went in there," said Hartnell, who was trying to get Smith to answer for a blow to the head of Jackets forward Josh Anderson late in the second period. "I really wanted a piece of him."

Scenes like this have played out across the NHL this season. Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella said he's been told of a directive from the league to officials "that if they can stop the fight, stop the fight."

"The way I look at it, I think it has to do with concussions and all the talk about that, the scrutiny on it," Tortorella said. "That's just speculation on my part, but I know I've been told one time, when I asked, 'Why don't you just let them fight?' ...; they've been directed a little bit to stop that."

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly, in an email exchange with The Dispatch, said there has been no directive to the league's linesmen, that they've always been "instructed to pre-empt fights if they can do it safely."

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