Quick Hits - hockeyfights.com

Bring on Round Two

Apr 29, 2010 9:50 AM David M Singer

Ian Laperriere celebrates with Brian Boucher after the Flyers defeated the Red Wings on April 4, 2010. AP Photo/Matt Slocum

The first round of the 2009-10 NHL playoffs are complete. The West was fairly predictable, but the East saw the 6, 7 and 8 seeds skate away winners. There should be no goaltender questions in Montreal after the upset Jaroslav Halak helped pull off.

There haven’t been too many fights. A couple of questionable majors calls, but the round was entertaining nonetheless.

Lappy out

Bad news for Ian Laperriere and the Flyers:

Laperriere is expected to miss the rest of the playoffs because of a brain contusion and concussion he suffered while blocking a shot.

More top rated fights

A new page: the best AHL fights of 2009-10.

Videos added

Derek Morris vs Justin Abdelkader Apr 25, 2010
Richard Clune vs Rick Rypien Apr 23, 2010
Wayne Simmonds vs Shane O’Brien Apr 23, 2010
Zdeno Chara vs Paul Gaustad Apr 23, 2010
Craig Rivet vs Milan Lucic Apr 21, 2010
Andrej Sekera vs Vladimir Sobotka Apr 19, 2010
Scott Gomez vs Tom Poti Apr 17, 2010
Zack Smith vs Maxime Talbot Apr 16, 2010

Video Updates • 6 Comments • Permalink

Top Rated Fights of 2009-10

Apr 15, 2010 2:45 PM David M Singer

11 Comments

Rick Rypien fights Brandon Prust on Jan. 9, 2010. AP Photo/The Canadian Press,Darryl Dyck

The votes are in and here are your top 25 NHL fights of 2009-10... for now. Voting won’t ever stop, and anything that happens in the playoffs has the potential to be included.

Also released:
Top 25 NHL fights of 2008-09
Top 25 NHL fights of 2007-08

Coming soon: top AHL fights, and, of course, the top 25 of all-time.

A menu option for these pages will be added soon. Next season this page will be made as soon as we have 25 fights in the log and the list will sort itself out a few times a day. Enjoy.

Video Updates • 11 Comments • Permalink

A Strong Ending

Apr 11, 2010 9:48 PM David M Singer

3 Comments

PL3 fights Trevor Gillies. AP Photo/Bill Kostroun

Evander Kane KOing Matt Cooke started the highlight reel for the last weekend of the 2009-10 NHL regular season.

Later in that same game Eric Godard had a great toe-to-toe fight with Eric Boulton.

There were also a couple of high-rated bouts in the Islanders-Devils game: Michael Haley and Rod Pelley had a good, open exchange — and Trevor Gillies eventually convinced PL3 to drop the gloves, leading to another back and forth scrap.

Will any make the best of 2009-10 list or be nominated for one of our season awards? Find out soon as we start releasing the nominees this week.

The final day

Aaron Voros took on Ian Laperriere in the most important, and probably most entertaining game of the day. Philly took the 8th and final playoff spot in a shootout. Jody Shelley had the lone goal for the Rangers.

Another Penguin down: Joel Rechlicz dropped Mike Rupp with a clean shot, but Rupp popped right back up. Wrecker’s glove toss alone makes the video worth watching.

Boogaard the Bolt

From Michael Russo:

According to multiple NHL sources, the Wild traded enforcer Derek Boogaard to the Tampa Bay Lightning on March 3 for third- and fourth-round draft picks and NHL penalty-minute leader Zenon Konopka. GMs Chuck Fletcher and Brian Lawton were talking trade all day, and just before the 2 p.m. trade deadline, Lawton called to sweeten the deal. It was accepted by Fletcher, but the Wild soon discovered the Lightning no longer owned one of the draft picks. By the time the mistake was resolved, it was past the deadline and the trade couldn’t transpire.

Videos added

Ryan Malone vs Keith Ballard Apr 11, 2010 x2
Eric Godard vs Joel Rechlicz Apr 11, 2010
Michael Rupp vs Joel Rechlicz Apr 11, 2010
Aaron Voros vs Ian Laperriere Apr 11, 2010
Jamal Mayers vs Rick Rypien Apr 10, 2010
Mark Fistric vs Cody Almond Apr 10, 2010
Nick Tarnasky vs Zenon Konopka Apr 10, 2010
Trevor Gillies vs Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond Apr 10, 2010
Micheal Haley vs Rod Pelley Apr 10, 2010
Eric Godard vs Eric Boulton Apr 10, 2010 x2
Matt Cooke vs Evander Kane Apr 10, 2010 x2
Scott Hartnell vs Daniel Girardi Apr 9, 2010
Mike Brown vs B.J. Crombeen Apr 9, 2010

Some reads

Rick Tocchet doesn’t fear management critique
Blues players are grateful for time spent with Tkachuk
SI Players Poll: NHL’s Toughest Fighter

Video Updates • 3 Comments • Permalink

Fighting Majors

Apr 8, 2010 11:44 PM David M Singer

11 Comments

Most regular visitors of the site know we have a very simple way of counting a “fight”: if one player receives a fighting major during an incident, it gets logged. That’s it. Nothing subjective on our end.

That doesn’t mean the call itself isn’t subjective. I receive emails from time to time about a “missed fight”, generally some roughings, and it’s rare they should have been called majors. The incident just happens to involve the emailer’s favorite player or team.

More frequently I’ll get a note asking “how was that a fight?” with a link to a fight page. Bad fights or questionable majors calls happen too, I don’t get to call them, just log them.

It’s rare you see bad roughings and bad majors called in the same game, but we got both in tonight’s Senators vs Lighting game.

Tampa goaltender Mike Smith didn’t care for Chris Neil‘s slewfoot/trip and went right after him. If it weren’t for Mattias Ohlund, we might have seen something a bit longer, but real punches were definitely thrown. Roughings were called, presumably because a goalie was involved and the game continued.

It wouldn’t have seemed so odd until fighting majors were called when Matt Carkner went after Todd Fedoruk (video). Was that really any more of a “fight”?

The entire game was riddled with odd calls and Tampa’s television color analyst Bobby Taylor didn’t hold back any criticism, eventually referring to the officiating crew as “idiots in the zebra stripes”.

Video Updates • 11 Comments • Permalink

Zenon Konopka’s Thirtysomething

Apr 7, 2010 12:39 PM David M Singer

4 Comments

Zenon Konopka fights Jay Harrison for his 32nd fighting major of 2009-10, his hands showing the wear and tear of that number. AP Photo/Mike Carlson

Zenon Konopka earned another two fighting majors last night, taking on Tom Kostopoulos and Jay Harrison.

Konopka leads the league in FMs this season and at 32, has dropped the gloves more than any player since Peter Worrell had 33 in 2001-02. Only Konopka, Worrell, Andrei Nazarov, Jody Shelley and Krzysztof Oliwa have had 30 or more FMs in the past 10 seasons.

Awards are coming!

Always a fun time around here, we’ll be releasing the season award list soon.

Videos added

Jay Harrison vs Zenon Konopka Apr 6, 2010
Tom Kostopoulos vs Zenon Konopka Apr 6, 2010
Arron Asham vs Colton Orr Apr 6, 2010
Daniel Carcillo vs Garnet Exelby Apr 6, 2010
Chris Neil vs Nick Tarnasky Apr 6, 2010
John Scott vs Dean Arsene Apr 5, 2010

Some reads

Quinn wants players first, fighters second
Carcillo maturing into important player for Flyers
Where have you gone Brad May
Rinkside Romance: Are Hockey Players Hollywood’s Latest Accessory?
Fans appreciate fighting spirit, but ?Slap Shot? antics begin to take toll on team

Video Updates • 4 Comments • Permalink

Anniversaries

Apr 2, 2010 2:34 PM David M Singer

7 Comments

Patrick Roy fights Mike Vernon. AP Photo/Tom Pidgeon

There have been a couple of famous brawls I’ve recently added new video for and wanted to highlight.

Last week was the 13-year anniversary of the first Red Wings-Avs brawl, the one that included the Patrick Roy vs Mike Vernon fight. All of the fight pages have two feeds on them.

Today, is anniversary of a huge playoff brawl between the Habs and Nordiques. While the specific date won’t match, the game is better known as the Good Friday game.

Happy Good Friday.