There's not much good to say about the Pen's game last night, but I'll do my best to try to raise the sagging spirits of the Pensburgh crowd.  Would watching Eric Godard pound on Chris Neil make you feel better?  Dry those eyes and take a look.

The fight started with Neil doing the increasingly popular move of grabbing the jersey and jabbing with the same hand, but Godard quickly got Neil's hand away from his face and came out swinging.  Neil was switching hands, swinging with whatever he could get free, but Godard stayed dedicated to his right hand, and his right hand stayed dedicated to Neil's face.  After blows back and forth with both players stopped and looked as if they were going to await the linesmen.  Then Neil took the opportunity to take a cheap swing, and Godard answered with a direct shot to the face (or right in the button, if you're listening to the clip).  At this point, Neil's face started bleeding, but he kept at it.  The energy was sapped, though, and shortly the linesmen broke the two up.

What a bout from Godard.  Neil came out with some quick jabs, but Godard just pounded his face over and over again.  This is a solid win for Godard - just look at the blows he connected!  By the end of the bout, Neil's left cheek was swollen and bloody, but that can be expected when one gets repeatedly punched in the face.  Definitely a good fight - I just wish it had come in a better game.

Next up is Atlanta, who thus far have 9 fights this season (coincidentally, the same number Chris Neil has) - five of which coming from Eric Boulton.  You may recall a memorable bout last season in which Ruslan Fedotenko broke his hand on Colby Armstrong's face.  Let's hope any fights that we may see have similar results without the unfortunate effects.

(Thanks to GhostWalker40 for the video!)

Barely into the 3rd period, Bill Guerin got smacked from behind by Ryan Getzlaf, then again as he got back to the skates. Guerin and Getzlaf stayed near each other, and then the gloves came flying.

Getzlaf got some weak head shots in before Guerin caught him in a headlock, which pulled off his helmet. Getzlaf went for a shot that was blocked by Guerin, and then the two went down to the ice. I'm not quite sure if Getzlaf pulled Guerin or vice-versa, but it doesn't really matter. This one's a draw.

This is both Guerin and Getzlaf's first fight this season. Next up is Ottawa, who is tied for 4th in the NHL for fights, with 16. The Penguins are just behind them with 14, tied for 7th.

I'm a little behind, so we're going to hit this one fairly quickly. In the nail biter of Pittsburgh's game against the Bruins, it would be quite understandable to have forgotten that a fight broke out in the 1st period between Deryk Engelland and Byron Bitz - so let's look back.

This wasn't much to write home about, really. The two got a nice hold of each other's arms, with Engelland keeping Bitz from getting either arm up to swing. Engelland took a couple awkward shots at Bitz's back, then got a hold of Bitz's side and delivered some head shots while Bitz slid down to the ice. There's no way I could count this for Bitz, so Engelland gets the win.

As always, thanks to hockeyfights.com.

Halloween is an odd time of the year.  People dress up in all kinds of strange outfits, kids are encouraged to take candy from strangers, and Sidney Crosby gets himself into a fight.  Good for him.

After Crosby was knocked into the boards by Marek Zidlicky, he may have been feeling slightly irked.  Then when the puck came back around and Zidlicky was back up in Sid's grill, Sid decided to give Zidlicky a slash, and got one back for his efforts.  Finally, the tensions came to a head and the two went at it.

Well, more like Crosby went at it.  With helmets shaken off, Crosby started pounding on Zidlicky and pulled his jersey over his head, Kenny Wu style.  The linesmen were very, very quick to get into this melee and split the two up, and each man got 7 minutes - 5 minutes for fighting and 2 minutes for slashing.

And this brings up an issue I've never really thought about.  When someone like Eric Godard or Colton Orr drop the gloves, the linesmen let the two go at it until one either goes down or exhaustion forces them to stop.  However, when Crosby jumped in swinging, the linesmen were in almost immediately.  I honestly haven't gone looking to see if this is common for the 'star players' around the league, or this was an isolated thing, but there was definitely a different reaction here.

Up next for the Pens is the Anaheim Ducks, who had three fights against Phoenix last night.  Two of which came from James Wisniewski, who received an instigator and misconduct for his first fight, and still came back for a second.  In 82 fights last season, the Ducks only had one against the Pens - a win for Paul Bissonnette.

It's been a while since we've seen a Penguins fight, which I suppose may have been needed after the triple feature against Toronto on October 10.  So what has Eric Godard gotten himself...wait, Chris Kunitz?  Really?

Meeting up in the Florida goal, Ballard is all over Kunitz, and even manages to take get his helmet off.  The two exchange a few shoves before the gloves come flying off.  And then they take a nice little tour of the ice.  Okay, not really - but since their equipment was sitting near the goal, it was a little odd to see them skate off to the blue line.

Ballard connects with a jab and grabbing for the jersey, so Kunitz responds by bringing down the hammer to the back.  A bit of struggling, and Kunitz hits a low uppercut to the chin (that may or may not have hit pads) and connects with the back of Ballard's head, taking him down to a knee.  Ballard uses the momentum shift to swing Kunitz of his skates, and proceeds to hit while Kunitz is struggling back to his knees.  The linesmen are a little late getting in at this point, and separate the two.

I'm thinking Kunitz on this one.  He got the better blows in during the fight, and staggered Ballard, but Ballard used the opportunity to swing Kunitz off balance and hit him on the ice - which isn't cool at all.

This is Chris Kunitz's second fight as a Penguin, and his first during the regular season (the other coming in postseason against the Flyers - go figure).  He's not a regular fighter, but he definitely can hold his own when he goes.  You may remember Keith Ballard as the guy Sidney Crosby attacked last season.

Next up is Ottawa, who have had six fights in three games, half of which from Matt Carkner.

When you hear that a Penguins game has had three fights in it, you'd expect the opponent to be the Flyers or the Rangers.  Imagine my surprise when I checked the game against Toronto and spotted three fighting penalties.  Three!  That's one more fight than the Pens had against the Leafs all last season!

It probably would have been a good idea to space these out yesterday, when there was an entire day off, but I was preoccupied, so we're going to put all three of them here.  The first one is before the jump, with the other two following.

Eric Godard vs. Colton Orr

Totally called it.  Godard and Orr fought four times last season, so it's no surprise that the two would get down to it fairly quickly.  Like 2:19 in the first period quickly.

Not one of their better fights, honestly.  Some back and forth punches to the helmets before Orr falls backwards to the ice.  Now the question is did Godard's hit cause Orr's fall, or did Orr simply slip to the ice trying to dodge Godard's hit?  I'm going with the former, giving Godard the win here.  This is the subject of the entry's poll, as I can only post one per entry...and the other two really aren't very debatable.

Continue reading this post »

When the Penguins and the Flyers meet up, it's not a matter of if a fight will break out, it's a matter of when.  It wasn't one of the usual suspects, though...at least not on the Penguins side.  Rather than Eric Godard, it was Craig Adams going at it with Philadelphia's resident goon (or at least one of them) Ian Laperriere.

This one broke just over a minute into the game right out of a faceoff.  Lappy connected several times with Adams' helmet, but Adams came back with a punch that didn't exactly connect, but helped get Lapperriere's helmet off.  That's as far as it got, though, because as Lapperriere shifted his weight, Adams pushed him down to the ice.  Very quick, and not much to look at.

This won't be the last time you see a Penguin fight a Flyer this season, and chances are Lapperriere will be involved again.  Adams isn't known for his fighting (he only had two fights last season, both before he came to the Penguins), but you'll definitely see one of the Penguins pound on a Flyer again.

As for this one?  Since neither player really got any kind of an advantage and it ended so quickly, I'm calling it a draw.  Hopefully we'll see something better when the Penguins meet the Maple Leafs tomorrow.  After all, we get to see our old buddy Colton Orr again, and we all know what happens when he's involved.

Thanks to hockeyfights.com for the video!

(EDIT: I really feel like a jerk for not having mentioned this a long time ago, but all the videos posted for Tales of the Tape come from HockeyFights.com.  It's a fantastic site for all the hockey fighting clips and stats that you could possibly want.  It's been a huge help for me, so give it a look!)

It would seem as if the Penguins are trying to show each reason to get into a hockey fight.  We had the two heavyweights go in game one, and now we have the 'stick up for your player' fight.  Take a look.

Brendan Witt nailed Ruslan Fedotenko pretty hard, causing Evgeni Malkin to come at him with a shoulder and Pascal Dupuis to start a bit of a tussle.  Finally, Jay McKee pulled him back and locked up.  Unfortunately, McKee didn't do much from that point, tussling a bit before getting some shots back from Witt who stood up for himself quite well.  Witt got his arm free and landed some blows, keeping McKee's arms unable to swing well.  McKee pulled off Witt's helmet at the end, but by that point, the linesmen came in to split the group up.

While Witt did not get penalized further than five minutes for fighting (and he shouldn't have - it was a clean hit on Fedotenko), the Pens certainly did.  Malkin got two minutes for interference on his hit to Witt, and McKee received five for fighting, ten for misconduct and two for instigating.  So the debate of course becomes was it worth attacking Witt for the hit on Fedotenko?  I'd say yes and no.  I am a proponent of sticking up for guys that take heavy hits (not that Fedotenko can't stick up for himself), but McKee went about it very badly.  Dupuis was already dealing with Witt when McKee pulled him in.  Bad move, and it got him 12 extra penalty minutes.

As for the winner of the fight?  Neither got a clear advantage, so I'm going with a draw.