Jarkko Ruutu vs Milan Lucic

Epic.

Some of you beanpotters are hysterical. "Lucic didn't duck Laraque...he just wouldn't fight him".

Broken nose or not...he was running around hitting the Pens...then did his best running away from Big Georges. Then he tangles with Ruutu and leaves the ice acting like a champ. What a punk.

Lucic wins this one, but the Boston TV guys are tools. People also complain about Ruutu as a dirty play who will not fighting heavy weights. Ruutu really is a middle weight, but he fought a heavy here and did ok in a loss. You can see how strong Ruutu is he was able to tie up a bigger guy and put himself in a position to win a fight. There have been heavies that have fought Lucic and not done as well as Ruutu did in this one.

Easy, dominating win for Lucic. Ruutu only wanted to fight him because of his nose.

Ruutu tried to hold him off and tire him out, but must not have realized that Lucic is a conditioning freak.

Lucic looked great in that one. Jarkko is a tough cookie, and smart- but Lucic landed the only real punches. Easy decision.

Let's get something straight, Lucic was not picking on a middleweight. True, he didn't want to fight BGL, but he clearly didn't want to fight Ruutu either. Rutuu obviously brought that on himself and I'm glad; nothing pleases me more than seeing his head snap back from a solid shot.

ruutu is lucky he did not get knocked out !

To answer Guiness59's question: Why didn't Lucic go with BGL?
1. Lucic can actually play hockey and is not just a giant goon. He's been making good hockey plays and been involved in the scoring. If I was the coach I wouldn't want him to fight Big George the hack either.
2. He has been made to wear the visor and told not to fight so the nose can heal and not affect his breathing.
3. Lucic didn't pick his spot, Ruutu initiated and gave him no chance. He'd have gone with BGL I'm sure if the same thing happened.
I'm tired of BGL's reign. If I were a GM I'd bring up one steroid filled madman after another until someone smashed BGL's head in, but that's why I'm not a GM among other things.

great bout. love the body shots by lucic, a real fighter there. kid is all heart. so is ruutu. they wore themselves out good. lucic has to protect his beak, which he did, but at the same time needs to deliver heavy shots, which he did. ruutu wanted out after 30 seconds. not to take anything away from ruutu, he's a character guy and will hang in there and take his shots. GREAT fight.

HOWEVER, somebody please jaw-jack that horrid announcer. worse than a high school announcer on cable access.

lucic with the win but what a ***** he is fighting a weaker guy when laraque challenged him all night

Lucic landed the bigger bombs. All this with a busted snoot. The Ruutus really are toughest when they're hitting someone who ain't looking.

Win Lucic.

People write crap all the way here.
Lucic does not have to prove anything.
He did already. He's not scared of anyone and he fought big names the whole season. He chuckled once, alright. That does not make him a coward, though. Ruutu's a tough customer as well and he got some heavy blows to the head from Lucic here.
Win Milan.

you cannot physically hurt Ruutu, you can only hurt his feelings. Lucic did not want any part of Laraque earlier in the game.

I honestly thought Ruutu did enough with those late shots to earn a draw. If you mute the announcers and just watch the fight, it wasn't the beating they made it sound like throughout the fight. Ruutu ate some good shots but showed a pretty good chin and great patience to hang in there and pick his spots. I know he's a hated guy and not without reason, but to me you have to respect that kind of performance from Ruutu in what should have been a mismatch.