Arron Asham’s Big Right

Beagle barks up the wrong tree

Caps rookie Jay Beagle went looking for a fight with Arron Asham, one of the toughest middleweights for the past decade. It started out well, Beagle controlled range, threw long distance rights, but the feeling of things going well soon evaporated. Asham righted himself, regained his balance and composure and returned fire.

What transpired next is almost a carbon copy of what happened a little over a year ago in 2010-11's knockout of the year when Steve MacIntyre (Asham's new Penguins teammate) knocked Raitis Ivanans out cold. Asham threw two big right hands. The first punch stunned the young Cap, the second right turned out the lights.

Asham gave the crowd some theatrics while immediately skating away, but tapped his stick against the glass when Beagle stood up and skated off. It'll be interesting to see how that will be interpreted in the hockey community where the code is still alive and well.

Could this be the second year in a row where our knockout of the year takes place within the first few games? Time will tell, but it will be pretty hard for another KO to supplant this one.