Tales of the Tape: Atlanta Thrashers 3/17/09, Eric Godard vs. Boris Valabik

It's been two weeks since any Penguin has been handed a five minute major for fighting.  What took place leading up to it could be considered a 'scrum', with 44 minutes of penalties being handed out.  The video catches the whole event.

With the Thrashers miffed about Matt Cooke's hit on Zach Bogosian, tensions were definitely high and it boiled over at this point.  Godard, probably happy to be on the ice, was ready to fight, and you can see him drop his gloves in the initial confrontation before finally going at it with Boris Valabik outside of the pile-up that had the attention of most of the linesmen.

With a few shots traded, Valabik swings for the fences with his right arm but misses and evidently hurts his shoulder in the process.  He immediately drops his head as Godard moves in on the advantage, but the linesman spots it and breaks them up.  As much as I hate to see a fight broken up early, it was a good call by the official to get in there.  Valabik would have gotten a savage beatdown with a lack of defensive capabilities.

I'm calling this one a draw, due to circumstances ending the fight, though I could see how Godard could be called the winner, as it's pretty embarassing injuring yourself with a missed punch.  It doesn't give the bragging rights of, oh, breaking your hand on someone's face.  Of course, being that these guys are willing to drop the gloves and go at it, I'm just going to drop it and hope that Valabik is not seriously injured.