Sidney Crosby vs Keith Ballard

Crosby realized he was in over his head and decided to bail. I wish more guys would do that to him. Teach him that this here's a man thing.

That seemed like a good old fashioned hip check, but having a captain step up to defend a big smack on one of his star players, isn't exactly unheard of.
Still, taking a number, used to be the classier response.
Draw, but respect for Crosby for not thinking twice about it, despite the questionable justification.

Didn't last long enough to gain much traction but man what a hipcheck Ballard laid on Malkin--old time hockey!

not much of a fight

clear win KB... a 4.....upyours.. sids real good...but hes a crybaby...it is what it is

Great hit by Ballard. he gets the W in the "fight" as well.

purrfect clean hit on malkin, deserves to be on hilight reels
what is this fightin after a clean hit phenomenon?
win ballard and more hits like that plox

This was definitely closer than the scoring indicates, and I don't think Ballard did much damage either. I read the comments first and thought Ballard dominated from what I read. I'm going with a draw from what I saw.

I don't know what 70's and 80's you watched but this is exactly what happend in the 70's and 80's. When a star player and/or goalie was touched whether it was clean or dirty, you went after the hitter. How many times was gretzky touched? Or Bobby Orr and the other big names of the past? Rarely, and when they were hit like that, thats when the closest guy to him tossed the gloves and even in some cases everyone tossed off the gloves. I cannot think of the exact date of the game but Dave Manson destroyed Gretzky with a clean hit but Gretzky was hurt and the benches cleared. Thats what the code said to do.

This fight here between Crosby and Ballard I see as a draw, Crosby threw Ballard down but Ballard landed a few soft punches. Not enough fight to call a winner. Big props to Sid for doing the right thing.

And yes to all that back Sid up, it is frusterating reading the dumb@$$ philly fans and Crosby hater comments. But we all know that if their team had Crosby they would love him and probably kiss his @$$ on these boards. Sid will be the face of the league for a long time so he will have fans and also jealous haters that want to see him fail at every chance. I'm sorry to all you Crosby haters that Pittsburgh has another phenom, he accomplished a scoring title faster than ANYONE in sports HISTORY. That is a fact.

nothing fight, DRAW.
no good punch landed by Ballard.

Cleaning Crosby's clock ? Easy now. That being said, edge to Ballard.

I will give credit were credit is due,crosby showed me alot of class,hes been in more fights then malkin and oveckin combined,that says it all.at half the size.But crosby has shown heart,malkin got a clean hit unlike the gutless slew foots and cheap elbows he throws out.

Good for Crosby, stuck up for his teammate like a captain should and fought a legitimately tough guy in Ballard

Ballard with the win. Crosby threw a single punch and not landing it. Once again, ridiculous attempted retribution for a clean hit. A bunch of babies.

Some of these guys must have just started watching hockey. A good clean hit on a superstar has ALWAYS ended in a fight. That message has been sent forever, it just isn't usually another superstar who sends the message. Good for Sid for dropping the mitts. You might not like the guy, but he plays with more intensity than almost any other player in the league.

Oh yeah, the fight. Crap fight. Nothing really landed. That wasn't the point.