[Report] Former NHLer Bissonnette assaulted at Scottsdale restaurant

[RWJC]

Former NHLer Bissonnette assaulted at Scottsdale restaurant

 

TSN.ca Staff

Nov 25, 2024 at 08:40 PM ET

 

Paul Bissonnette, who played over 200 games in the NHL, was assaulted by six men at a Scottsdale, Arizona restaurant on Sunday, according to police. 
 

"There was an altercation inside the restaurant with six adult men and the management. Reportedly, Paul Bissonnette tried to help management calm the men and get them to leave. The situation escalated to the men assaulting Paul Bissonnette both inside and outside of the restaurant," Scottsdale Police Sgt. Allison Sempsis said in a statement.

 

Bissonnette took to social media on Monday to say he was doing alright and explain what happened at the restaurant. 
 

The six men were arrested and accused of assault and disorderly conduct.

 

Selected by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the fourth round of the 2003 NHL Draft, Bissonnette recorded seven goals, 15 assists and 340 penalty minutes over 202 career games with Penguins and Phoenix Coyotes during his NHL career from 2008 to 2014. 

Since his retirement from pro hockey in 2017, the 39-year-old native of Welland, Ont., has been prevalent in hockey media as a podcast host and analyst for TNT. 

 

https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/former-nhler-paul-bissonnette-assaulted-at-scottsdale-restaurant-1.2209780

[SuchaNuxtalgia]

Call me old-fashioned, but would prefer this guy keeps his coarse language OFF the HNIC broadcasts. Leave the gutter-talk for these random podcasts, plz(& thnx) networks.

[CanuckMan]

Love him or hate him, seems like a stand up guy helping someone out he had no need to be helping. 

[Canuck You]

**Exclusive Footage**

 

[I.Am.Ironman]

I know Biz gets flack for being a fringe NHL enforcer but this takes props. Goes to show how tough these guys are. Biz has been retired for years and he took on 6 guys. Yes they were probably blitzed but still. Plus, you have to respect the fact that he got up to help someone in need.

[Bob Long]

Lucky he didn't get shot.

 

[Outsiders]

I know some have a strong dislike for the guy but it takes stones these days to stand up and not be a bystander to these types of things. Respect Biz, you seem like a heart on the sleeve kinda guy. 

[andrea84]

Uh, no offense to Bissonnette, but if the situation ended in two violent attacks, you didn't help. This coming from someone who deals with angry customers at work -- having 'hero' customers trying to help always make it much worse as they just escalate the situation and make it much more chaotic for the cops and the staff. Management are usually trained to deescalate while waiting for the police to arrive. To everyone reading this, just let the staff handle it and butt out. 

[DeltaSwede]

Not sure why there is any dislike towards this guy but evidently there is. Just another example of Biz being a pretty awesome human being. He treats people around him really well (even those he doesn't know personally) and from following him for years it's not a one time thing. He always tires to help and stick up for people, anyone in need of it really. Glad he's alright after getting kicked and beaten by 7 drunk chads. He did the right thing. 

Stand up guy, super nice to people around him and a funny bastard. Absolutely horrific "orderer" of food at restaurants though. 

[-dlc-]

He's not my favourite but that changes a bit with the fact that he was trying to help someone out in a situation like this. Respect for stepping in, many wouldn't.

 

Glad he's ok but true point made in that, he's lucky he didn't get shot.

 

People are so ready to just attack others these days...we're seeing a lot of that here. It's a scary world out there....things escalate so quickly. It's a good thing we don't allow people to pack guns around here.

[Crabcakes]

8 hours ago, andrea84 said:

Uh, no offense to Bissonnette, but if the situation ended in two violent attacks, you didn't help. This coming from someone who deals with angry customers at work -- having 'hero' customers trying to help always make it much worse as they just escalate the situation and make it much more chaotic for the cops and the staff. Management are usually trained to deescalate while waiting for the police to arrive. To everyone reading this, just let the staff handle it and butt out. 

Too right.

 

In Vancouver recently, a passer by got involved with a situation between suspected shoplifters and a security guard outside a liquor store in Olympic Village.  The guy got stabbed for his efforts and nearly died with a severed artery in his arm.  This turned a simple case of shoplifting to a life and death emergency for police to deal with.  BC Liquor Store employees are instructed NOT to confront shoplifters.  It's not worth getting involved in a potential volatile situation.  Leave it up to the professionals.

[Bounce000]

9 hours ago, Bob Long said:

Lucky he didn't get shot.

 

Exactly, 6 dudes out together looking for trouble. One of them could of easily been packing

[RupertKBD]

Can't understand how anyone could dislike Biznasty, but to each their own I guess.

 

It's too bad that it escalated the way it did, but he was trying to help. I wonder if any of those six tough guys would have been man enough to try that one on one? Somehow, I doubt it....

[elvis15]

14 hours ago, andrea84 said:

Uh, no offense to Bissonnette, but if the situation ended in two violent attacks, you didn't help. This coming from someone who deals with angry customers at work -- having 'hero' customers trying to help always make it much worse as they just escalate the situation and make it much more chaotic for the cops and the staff. Management are usually trained to deescalate while waiting for the police to arrive. To everyone reading this, just let the staff handle it and butt out. 

There's definitely a right and wrong way to intervene. We don't know if Biz did everything right or not, but we could all benefit from intervention training.

 

I highly recommend a woman from the Ottawa area who does just this thing, and offers free online webinars on the subject. She also does paid presentations if your company, organization, etc. wants to have their staff trained, but for individuals, her webinars are excellent. They could be the difference in helping someone who is feeling unsafe by using a good de-escalation technique, and it escalating to something worse. 

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/DCzpZ1IRCJJ/?img_index=4&igsh=cWNrcjd6eWNlcGZi

 

https://linktr.ee/JulieSLalonde?fbclid=PAY2xjawGy2PdleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABpjjiavxkmjjee6uhIQdIFY3vexoH7_VidnsgXUY7gSdtDAgXu35tfAeeMQ_aem_nFKqQYrsxx-G-zukstDfmw

 

 

Edited November 26 by elvis15

[CBH1926]

12 hours ago, Bob Long said:

Lucky he didn't get shot.

 

If it’s true that this happened at Houston’s in North Scottsdale, near by golf courses are Gainey Ranch, Camelback, Phoenician etc. It is not cheap to golf there, I highly doubt that these guys would be packing heat. Bunch of well off guys that got shit faced and decided to go 6 on 1.

[ABNuck]

I thought I read initially that it was 7 guys (so one got away). Also, the drunken idiots laid hands on the manager, so definitely awesome that Biz intervened. If it was just a shouting match then, ya, stay out of it. But I believe it was physical, therefore turned out to actually be 7 chickenshits vs a scared manager and an NHL fighter...seems fair to me to bruise a few of the dumb shits.

[Goose]

The cowards who jumped him. 

 

 

[chaoticmonkey]

Love Biz, he's a fresh of breath air. All the respect in the world for him standing up for the staff, and more power to him.

 

Glad he's ok.

[Ghostsof1915]

I admire this guy a lot more. 

 

https://vancouversun.com/news/passerby-stabbed-shoplifting-vancouver-liquor-store

[andrea84]

4 hours ago, elvis15 said:

There's definitely a right and wrong way to intervene. We don't know if Biz did everything right or not, but we could all benefit for intervention training.

 

I highly recommend a woman from the Ottawa area who does just this thing, and offers free online webinars on the subject. She also does paid presentations if your company, organization, etc. wants to have their staff trained, but for individuals, her webinars are excellent. They could be the difference in helping someone who is feeling unsafe by using a good de-escalation technique, and it escalating to something worse. 

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/DCzpZ1IRCJJ/?img_index=4&igsh=cWNrcjd6eWNlcGZi

 

https://linktr.ee/JulieSLalonde?fbclid=PAY2xjawGy2PdleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABpjjiavxkmjjee6uhIQdIFY3vexoH7_VidnsgXUY7gSdtDAgXu35tfAeeMQ_aem_nFKqQYrsxx-G-zukstDfmw

 

 

 

Thanks for the links. My company already has a province-wide policy and management which is trained to de-escalate drunk, unruly, or belligerent patrons. The managers actually get more angry at the people who try to intervene and help because it actually puts all the other customers and staff at risk and adds tons of extra paper work for them to do. For example, one time a person tried to commit a theft and another 'helping' patron waited at the door to apprehend him, even after the manager assertively told them not too intervene. The 'helping' customer assaulted the thief, pretty brutally I might add, right in front of other customers at the exit and tons of glass bottles and shards went flying everywhere. We lost the product, tons of staff had to be recruited to clean up all the broken glass, the thief got away, and the company had to file lots of extra paper work in terms of incident reports etc, and work with police to get it sorted out. Again, do not intervene; police exists for a  reason and they usually respond to bars and pubs pretty quick.

[RWJC]

 

 

[Crabcakes]

6 hours ago, Goose said:

The cowards who jumped him. 

 

 

Definitely golfers

[Bounce000]

[Gurn]

On 11/26/2024 at 11:42 AM, Goose said:

The cowards who jumped him. 

 

 

If no choice, other than violence 

 

start with the 2 on lower right

then a tossup between upper middle and upper right

hope to still be standing to deal with bozos on the left side of pic.

ps- how and where, they were standing, at the time, can change the plan.

Edited Thursday at 07:21 PM by Gurn

[Goose]

 

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Edited Friday at 12:00 AM by Goose