Scheduling Foes
Looks like that plan for scheduling rivalries kicked in last night. The numbers speak for themselves.
11 games
6 divisional games: 10 fights
5 non-divisional games: 0 fights
I don’t want to build up today too much, but Sharks at Stars and Kings at Ducks, the second leg of a home and home, both stand out. Avalanche at Canucks is another divisional game, but it hasn’t been the same game this season as it was in years past.
So does this mean they should keep the schedule intact? Not really, one night doesn’t change all that much, but let’s not completely balance this thing out just yet. What made yesterday’s divisional games great wasn’t just the fact that there were some fights, but they were a lot of fun to watch and filled with passion. It’s something the league could use more of.
Last night’s fight videos:
Shane O’Brien vs Tom Kostopoulos Feb 17, 2007
Andre Roy vs Alexei Semenov Feb 17, 2007
Nick Tarnasky vs Steve Montador Feb 17, 2007
Mark Fraser vs Chris Simon Feb 17, 2007
Michael Rupp vs Drew Fata Feb 17, 2007
Cam Janssen vs Arron Asham Feb 17, 2007
Andrew Ference vs Jochen Hecht Feb 17, 2007
Jeremy Reich vs Adam Mair Feb 17, 2007
Aaron Ward vs Alexandre Picard Feb 17, 2007
Mike Richards vs Sean Avery Feb 17, 2007
Unfortunately I’m still having connection issues and I’m having trouble getting to any of the video servers, so the downloads haven’t been updated yet. Youtube is still processing the rest of the clips from last night, and I’ll add those as they’re available.
The Orange County Register was looking forward to last night’s Ducks-Kings matchup, and I’m sure the same could be said for tonight’s.
You can’t have a Ducks article without some fight talk. The team was still buzzing about Thursday night’s Beauchemin-Boynton fight:
While Pronger’s late second-period goal sparked the Ducks’ come-from-behind victory Thursday, many cited Francois Beauchemin’s fight with Nick Boynton as key.
It was Beauchemin’s first fighting major this season and the fourth of his NHL career, according to publish.hockeyfights.com. It also conjured memories of Beauchemin’s brawl with Calgary’s Jarome Iginla that turned around last season’s playoff series.
“Beauchemin doesn’t do it that often, so when he does it’s exciting,” Shawn Thornton said.
Gene Collier of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes that there isn’t much the Penguins will probably do at the trade deadline, but ends it with a thought I’ve had here before: Georges Laraque could be a good fit in Pittsburgh.
The Flyers-Rangers game from yesterday is getting some ink, and so is a run-in between Berube and Avery post-game:
He [Avery] even attracted attention post-game, when he got into a shouting match in the hallway of the locker room with Flyers assistant coach, and former tough guy Craig Berube.
Allegedly, Berube called Avery “chicken-(bleep)” during the game. When they were coming off the ice post game, Avery said, “I hear you called me chicken-(bleep)?”
When Berube confirmed that he had, Avery continued the agitation.
“Well, you were a cement head when you played the game,” he said to Berube.
Not taking kindly to the comments, Berube replied with several unprintable responses, but somewhere in his tirade, called Avery a “gutless little puke.”
The Rangers and Flyers play again on March 21st.
More reads:
B’s turn it up, beat Sabres to the punch: Big effort leads to win in shootout
Hit on Moss could bring NHL penalty
Bruins fight way through
Enforcers rule on different levels
Update 1220pm: Jim Matheson of The Edmonton Journal has an update on Brantt Myhres.
Update 440pm: Connection still bad, Youtube still acting odd. A few videos are not done processing and some are telling me the videos that should be available are giving errors sometimes (that the video’s still processing or private).
Update 640pm: Vids have been added to all fight pages, list above updated.
