Starry Day and Night

Alexander Semin goes silverback on Marc Staal. From Shawn Ferry on SmugMug

Something was in the air in NHL cities yesterday.  The theme seemed to be stars and non-fighters dropping the gloves and throwing some punches: Sidney Crosby, Alexander Semin, Doug Weight.  If Vegas had odds on every player in the NHL fighting on a given night, a parlay on those three probably would have given you 10,000:1 odds, if not better.

In a day game, Sidney Crosby gave Brett McLean little choice.  On the faceoff immediately after the Gregory Campbell-Max Talbot fight, Crosby grabbed McLean, pulled his jersey up, and threw some punches while he ragdolled him around some.  After no more than 10 seconds, the linesmen were in as the two were on the ice.

In the evening, Alexander Semin had his first NHL fight against Marc Staal.  After some pushing and a gloved punch or two, they dropped the gloves.  Staal pulled pulled Semin’s jersey off and fell to the ice while trying to grab onto the stripped-down Semin.  As Staal fell, Semin mixed gorilla and sorority girl, pounding downward with both hands as the linesmen dove onto them.  Earlier in the Rangers-Caps game Wade Redden dropped Chris Clark with one hard right.

In the late game, Doug Weight went after Christian Ehrhoff after seeing Ehrhoff throw a gloved shot at teammate Mark Streit (I’m assuming he missed Streit elbowing Ehrhoff moments earlier).  Tim Jackman fought Alex Semenov earlier in the first period.

If you’re looking for toe-to-toe, Krys Barch had a good one with Zack Stortini in the Stars-Oilers game.  Really.

Lockout lull over

In 2005-06, the first year after the NHL lockout, 276 NHL players dropped the gloves throughout the season.  This season, 575 of 1230 games in, 272 players have already picked up a fighting major. [NHL fight stats]

Videos added

Doug Weight vs Christian Ehrhoff Jan 3, 2009
Tim Jackman vs Alexei Semenov Jan 3, 2009
Krys Barch vs Zack Stortini Jan 3, 2009
Fedor Tyutin vs David Backes Jan 3, 2009
Marc Staal vs Alexander Semin Jan 3, 2009
Wade Redden vs Chris Clark Jan 3, 2009
Brett McLean vs Sidney Crosby Jan 3, 2009
Gregory Campbell vs Maxime Talbot Jan 3, 2009

I hope to add the other two fights from the Stars-Oilers game soon. No ETA yet.

Listen up

Penguin Soundbytes (Crosby, Orpik, Therrien) - Crosby talks about his fight.
Post-game vs. Dallas - Zack Stortini

Some reads

Tocchet Might Be Right Man For This Fight
Crosby Drops Them Again
Brad Stuart relishes role as Red Wings’ big hitter
Things I wish would came back to the NHL
After a Classic success at Wrigley, where does NHL go from here?