Big Night Leads to Variety of Games, Fights

Like a hockey smorgasbord with a side of fistic dishes, there was a little something for everyone last night in the NHL. A tight, defensive game in Vancouver, a wide-open goal-fest in Calgary, and the late-game shootout in San Jose. Seven of eleven games were decided by one goal.

The number of fights matched the number of games (11), and those had some variety as well. The heavyweights, the goalie, the pests, the instigator, it was all over the place.

The earliest fights of the evening were both Fight of the Week material. Steve MacIntyre took some hard shots from Eric Godard. The two may be the same age, but Godard has far more experience with NHL heavyweights and MacIntyre was bound to run into a few bumps in the road during his rookie season. A good scrap, rated high already. Later in the game Theo Peckham went after Matt Cooke after a hit on Sam Gagner, Cooke’s latest of the night (Cooke was credited with six hits overall).

The other highlight reel scrap, or two, came out of New York. Ryan Malone and Aaron Voros fought long and hard in the first period. After a full minute of trading punches, the two finally tired out and skated away to the boxes with MSG cheering away. It’s another FOTW candidate and is also being rated high already. Later in that game Voros was involved in the rough action again, this time with Bolts goaltender Mike Smith. Smith was whacking away at Voros during play and after a whistle the backstopper went right after the Rangers forward. Gloves were off, but Smith’s mask never was, and the whole scene was a bit of a mess.

There were a pair of fights in the Preds–Flames game. The first was Cory Sarich vs Joel Ward. It was Ward’s first NHL fight, and Sarich did not go easy on him. Jordin Tootoo and the always-game Brandon Prust had a scrap later on.

Rounding out the night: Donald Brashear overpowered Wade Brookbank in DC. Daniel Carcillo had a scrap with Mike Brown (no full vid yet). The Panthers and Kings surprisingly dropped the gloves twice. Kyle Calder–Keith Ballard and Gregory Campbell–Denis Gauthier were the matchups. Both fights were relatively short.

McCarty’s presence still felt

Darren McCarty‘s back in the NHL, back in Hockeytown, and still swinging. He spoke with the press enough to get a couple of stories about him in the local papers.

Over at mlive.com, Ansar Khan has McCarty speaking about his role:

“Everybody knows in here and around that I don’t go looking for it, but I’m going to stand up for my teammates,” McCarty said. “If something goes down, I’ll be the one to answer the bell. That’s the way I’ve always been, no matter what role I was playing on this team, lots of minutes or not many.”

Dave Dye of The Detroit News adds teammate reaction to McCarty’s game:

“The one thing you know, he’s going to stick up for his teammates,” forward Kris Draper said. “That’s what Mac’s done his whole career. If you take him into the weight room, we’ve got guys in here who can out-lift him. But when it’s time to drop the gloves, he’s a gamer.”

Videos added

Unfortunately some technical difficulties led to only the replay of the Carcillo-Brown fight being captured. When I get a better clip, I’ll push that to the top of the fight page.

Gregory Campbell vs Denis Gauthier Nov 6, 2008
Keith Ballard vs Kyle Calder Nov 6, 2008
Daniel Carcillo vs Mike Brown Nov 6, 2008 (replay only)
Jordin Tootoo vs Brandon Prust Nov 6, 2008
Joel Ward vs Cory Sarich Nov 6, 2008
Craig Weller vs Ian Laperriere Nov 6, 2008
Mike Smith vs Aaron Voros Nov 6, 2008
Theo Peckham vs Matt Cooke Nov 6, 2008
Wade Brookbank vs Donald Brashear Nov 6, 2008
Steve MacIntyre vs Eric Godard Nov 6, 2008
Ryan Malone vs Aaron Voros Nov 6, 2008
Kyle van de Bospoort vs Scott Fletcher Nov 6, 2008
John Quarrie vs Zach Harnden Nov 6, 2008
Brett Parnham vs Adrian Robertson Nov 6, 2008