SB Nation User Blog: JDunman

Staged fighting rule not likely to make it past players

JDunman — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:13:43 -0000

As we've journeyed through the season with Tales of the Tape, I've heard a lot of feedback on different aspects of fighting. I've watched and commented on all the fights of this season and I've learned a lot from the Pensburgh community who never seem to be able to keep quiet on anything - which is a good thing. So when I found out about the proposed rule for giving a misconduct penalty for a 'staged fight', it shouldn't be surprising that I was not amused.

In a nutshell, this rule would make it a 10 minute penalty to fight right out of the faceoff, or have a staged fight, which is I'm assuming to be one where two guys agree beforehand to drop the gloves. I suppose the unplanned, unexpected type, as demonstrated by Sidney Crosby, would be cool, but none of the type that most of us who spend waaaaay too much time watching for it see.

I, of course, wasn't amused by this, but as it turns out, neither were the players. The five player members on the competition committee have been recommended to vote against it - which will not allow the seven of ten votes needed to pass a new rule. To make their point, a number of ~~goons~~ 'tough guys' were brought in to make the point. And what ~~goon squad~~ enforcer representation would be complete without former Pen Georges Laraque?

"It would turn into a mockery anyway because I would turn to a guy and say, 'OK, we can't fight right now because of the rule, so we'll do six Mississippis and meet in the corner.' It's true, we would make a mockery out of it," said Laraque.

And therein lies the bigger problem with this rule. How do you enforce it? A 10 minute misconduct is a hefty penalty to dish out. Beyond the faceoff fights, what would count as a 'staged fight'? Couldn't the players argue that it was spur of the moment, rather than staged? Would we see a new era of secret nods and hand signals between players to signify the start of a fight? After the six Mississippis, of course.

I understand that fighting in hockey is a controversial topic, but this isn't going to fix it. All this will do is put a grace period between faceoffs and fights, and is that really worth the effort or the potential backlash from the group of players you definitely don't want to be meeting in a back alley?

Poll

Should the staged fighting rule be accepted by the NHL?

Relive the Entire Season with Empty Netters

JDunman — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:33:15 -0000

Relive the Entire Season with Empty Netters

Empty Netters has an amazing recap of the entire Penguins season, looking at each game complete with images and videos. Definitely worth a look.

Fighting Through the Playoffs: 2-for-1, Satan vs. Eaves, Letang vs. Gleason

JDunman — Fri, 22 May 2009 11:44:27 -0000

More photos » by Keith Srakocic - AP

Browse more photos »

It's been a while since last we saw gloves dropped in the post-season, and for good reason. While the discipline makes for a stronger post-season performance, it does make my job around here a little dull, so imagine my surprise when I saw not one, but two fights break out in the game 2 win against the Hurricanes. The video here has both fights, so we'll cover them both. Take a look.

After the hit and the scrum, two fights break out. The first, closest to the net, sees Kris Letang taking on Tim Gleason. After a push and some jersey pulling, Gleason starts with the shots, connecting several times before Letang gets him down to the ice and the linesman jumps in to break the two up. I've been chastised several times about putting too much credit into the takedown, but even with it, Gleason had the better showing and picks up the win here.

While that fight is going on, if you look a bit to the right, you'll see Miroslav Satan locking up with Patrick Eaves. Eaves initially takes Satan down to the ice, but Satan manages to twist around and get over Eaves and starts wailing. Both men get back to their skates, and Satan gets Eaves in a headlock and pulls his jersey up before they are finally broken up. That's a Satan win in his first post-season fight and his second fight ever. I'm liking this.

So recapping here, Letang loss, Satan win, Penguins just six more wins away.

I'm going to apologize now if the poll seems confusing, but since I can only post one per entry, I'm trying to lump both results into one. Just make sure you read your choice carefully before you pick one. Or not, if you so choose.

Poll

How did the Pens do in the fights?

Both wins

144 votes

Letang win, Satan loss

3 votes

Letang loss, Satan win

136 votes

Both losses

2 votes

Letang draw, Satan win

164 votes

Letang draw, Satan loss

1 votes

Letang win, Satan draw

11 votes

Letang loss, Satan draw

12 votes

Both draws

12 votes

485 votes | Poll has closed

Tales of the Tape: The Missing Fights Part 2 of 6: 10/11 Hal Gill vs. David Clarkson

JDunman — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 12:19:25 -0000

We've still got a few days before the Penguins kick off their second round against the Capitals, so let's take a look at another fight I missed during the regular season. We're going back to the home opener against the Devils - with Hal Gill vs. David Clarkson.

This was a decent scrap, though not as fast and furious as some people (myself included) prefer. Gill starts out the aggressor, giving Clarkson a few shots and yanking his helmet off, but fails to capitalize on the advantage. Clarkson connects with a shot that seems to briefly shake Gill and connects with a couple more before pulling Gill's helmet off. Finally, Gill catches Clarkson's arm and pushes the grapple to the ice, where the linesmen come in.

I'm saying draw.

NOTE: You may be wondering where the fights from the first round with Bill Guerin and Max Talbot are. For that, I have to apologize - my non-Pensburgh life has been a little hectic lately, and I quite simply hadn't had the chance to sit down and put anything up for them. I've got one post coming covering both of those - which really isn't going to be much. Neither fight was worth much, save Talbot shushing the crowd after his.

Poll

Who won the fight?

Hal Gill

28 votes

David Clarkson

17 votes

Draw

26 votes

71 votes | Poll has closed

Fighting through the Playoffs: Kris Letang vs. Darroll Powe

JDunman — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 13:14:35 -0000

This one may be a little confusing at first watch, so I'll try to guide you through it. Before you start, though, you may want to mute the sound, as the NBC commentary on this video is horrible. The sound quality's fine, but the words flowing freely are simply awful.

When play stops, we cut over to a dropping of gloves between Tyler Kennedy and Claude Giroux in which punches are exchanged before Kennedy slips, bringing Giroux down on top of him. That is what I assumed I was looking for, until I realized that the called fight was between Kris Letang and Darroll Powe. You have to watch further into the video for that one, and be sure to look closely. See Letang and Powe bump into each other, shove, then quickly get pulled apart by the linesmen? That's what got called for a fight.

So the roughing gets called for a fight and the fight gets called for roughing. I'm not quite sure how that works, but for what it was, Letang and Powe got a draw. What else would you call it?

Poll

Who won the fight?

Kris Letang

39 votes

Darroll Powe

73 votes

Draw

19 votes

How was Kennedy/Giroux not a fight?

174 votes

305 votes | Poll has closed

Fighting through the Playoffs: Chris Kunitz vs. Scott Hartnell

JDunman — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:21:54 -0000

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in. Fighting is not a frequent occurence once the regular season ends. Five minutes is a lot of time to spend in the box, and guys paid to drop the gloves are often scratched in favor of those with more on-ice production. One would assume that fighting would be kept to a minimum.

But not when Pittsburgh plays Philadelphia. We've seen three fights in as many games, with yesterday's having two of them. We'll start with Chris Kunitz taking on Scottt Hartnell.

First, let me just say how awesome that hit was from Kunitz on Kimmo Timonen. Seriously. Go watch it three more times. Put sound effects to it. What a devastating hit.

As for the fight? I have to call it a draw, because all I saw was a hug go down to the ice. This is one of the first videos I've seen that neither goes to the fight while it's happening (though the announcers are calling it) nor shows the full replay of it. From what it looks like, Fartsmell went after Kunitz, and they eventually locked up and ended up on the ice. Did they trade shots? Did they even get their gloves off? Sorry, it's not shown.

Check back later for Kris Letang taking on Darroll Powe, and I've finally found a video of Bill Guerin vs. Braydon Coburn from Game 1, so that will be coming as well.

Poll

Who won the fight?

Chris Kunitz

41 votes

Scott Hartnell

48 votes

Draw

9 votes

The hit on Kimmo Timonen

152 votes

250 votes | Poll has closed

Tales of the Tape: The Missing Fights Part 1 of 6: 10/11 Eric Godard vs. Michael Rupp

JDunman — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 12:51:00 -0000

As I was tallying up my fighting results for the end of the year fighting stats spectacular, I realized that to my epic embarassment, I am missing 6 of the Penguins' 39 fights. So between series, I'll be posting these fights as a special edition, since the fighting totals drastically drop in the playoffs (for good reason).

For the first edition, we go allllll the way back to October 11, to the home opener against the Devils.

Watching the beginning of the fight, you'd think that this would be a loss for Eric Godard. Rupp gets several good shots to the head, but they all bounce off of Godard's helmet and he stays with him. Godard comes back with some good shots of his own, including a hit to the face that slows the action down, until Godard comes back and knocks Rupp to the ice with shots to the back of the head.

In my book, that was a win that Godard opened the season with. How weird is it to say that?

Poll

Who won the fight?

Eric Godard

48 votes

Michael Rupp

8 votes

Draw

13 votes

69 votes | Poll has closed

Tales of the Tape: Tampa Bay Lightning 4/7/09, Bill Guerin vs. Evgeny Artyukhin

JDunman — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:19:32 -0000

So my prediction of Chris Kunitz getting into a fight to match his linemates didn't come to pass, but we still had an unexpected fighter emerge as Bill Guerin came back for an encore performance. Unfortunately, it's not much to write home (or to Pensburgh) about.

What do you say about this one? Guerin and Artyukhin met up in the corner along with Gonchar and St. Louis and after a few shoves, the gloves came off and they locked up. A few blows were attempted, a bit of rocking, and then both men got 5 minute majors for hugging. As far as fights go, this one was one for the insomniac cure book.

The only thing of note is Artyukhin is a bigger guy than Guerin, which could have made for an epic Little Mac story had this gone beyond hugging. But it didn't and I am saddened. This one's a draw.

Poll

Who won the fight?

Bill Guerin

10 votes

Evgeny Artyukhin

6 votes

Lame (Draw)

54 votes

70 votes | Poll has closed

Tales of the Tape: Tampa Bay Lightning 4/7/09, Eric Godard vs. David Koci

JDunman — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 11:46:34 -0000

After getting fights from Bill Guerin and Sidney Crosby, one might be curious as to just what Eric Godard has been up to lately. The answer came when he went toe to toe with Tampa's David Koci in defense of the Pens' resident superstar, Max Talbot.

After Koci slams Talbot into the boards, the two have something of a confrontation further up the ice (more like Koci was picking on Talbot) and as players and linesmen come in, suddenly Godard's gloves are off and punches are being thrown. Godard gets a few hits in on Koci's head before slipping off his skates, but pops right back up before the two can be seperated and both fight for leverage. Godard whips off Koci's helmet and gives a few heavy shots to the side of Koci's unprotected head. After a bit of jersey pulling, the two start spinning at arm's length from one another, obviously waiting for the linesmen to come in, but that not happening, they trade a few more swings before Godard nods to the linesmen and they send the two off to their respective boxes.

This isn't the first time this season that Godard and Koci have met up (that would be this one) and you may recall that Godard went after Koci for the hit that took out Sergei Gonchar back in September (as shown here). As with the last one, I'm calling this a Godard win and a thumbs up to him for doing his job to protect Talbot.

Check back later for the game's other fight - especially if you enjoy watching Bill Guerin hugging.

Poll

Who won the fight?

Eric Godard

114 votes

David Koci

1 votes

Draw

1 votes

116 votes | Poll has closed

Tales of the Tape: Florida Panthers 4/5/09, Sidney Crosby vs. Keith Ballard

JDunman — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 04:01:12 -0000

What is going on here? A few days ago we get a Bill Guerin fight and today Sidney Crosby drops the gloves? I'm fully expecting Chris Kunitz to be dropping the gloves in Tampa on Tuesday.

After Keith Ballard sent Malkin tumbling head-first to the ice, he fully expected for someone to come after him, and Sidney Crosby was the one to do so. No hard feelings, though. Ballard's comments after the game (from Empty Netters):

"Usually after something like that you have to expect that someone is coming. He kind of just came to me, so I got my gloves off quick. I think it's a clean hit, I don't know if they do or not. But that's part of it. They were on the power play, so they didn't have a bunch of tough guys out there. I expected someone to come, I didn't know who it would be. He's their captain and he understands that no matter who it is, you have to do something. He's an intense player, competitive. At that point of the game, that was pretty much the right thing to do."

Well, Crosby did come hard at him - so hard, in fact that he got an additional two minutes in the box for unsportsmanlike conduct (which was served by Petr Sykora). Of course, if you were watching the game on the Flordia feed like I was, you heard that Crosby was so evil that he should have gotten penalties for instigating, game misconduct, and banned from the NHL for all of this lifetime and most of the next. Fortunately, the refs are still in the tank for the Penguins, so no worries.

So the fight itself? Some jersey tugging, then a missed shot from Crosby gave Ballard an opening to start punching his helmet, but Crosby quickly pulled him down to the ice and that was that. It wasn't much, and I'm calling it a draw, but then again, I too am in the tank for Crosby (before anyone accuses me of such). That's why I keep two sets of Win/Loss/Draw records - what do you think?

Poll

Who won the fight?

Sidney Crosby

60 votes

Keith Ballard

52 votes

Draw

67 votes

179 votes | Poll has closed