Nah, it's not a "fight or don't fight" thing, it's the standing there and watch with "i dont care" attitude while everyone else jumps in to make sure you dont get hurt after he was the one who went after Konecny in the first place to start the entire thing. If a guy is going to skate after a guy, crosscheck him good up high, and give him a few stick jabs and then just smile and watch while other guys jump in and not even try to intercept 2 other Flyers who were trying to get in on his teammates... that's the problem. If you start the problem, ya gotta at least grab someone and skate them away from the pile.
What he did is tell his team that he has no problem with stick work until it comes time to get physical, then he's going to back down and let someone else possibly get hurt for him. It's not a good look for a supposed team leader.