The NHL free agency period has been open for 11 days now, and there has been some movement by teams looking to get tougher or stay tough that I have found interesting. Sure there are some serious players left unsigned, but I’d rather know where Derek Boogaard is playing over some guy named Kovulchuk any day. This was a big season for UFA tough guys, and so far, I have not been surprised or disappointed by the movement of these tough guys to date. I have been particularly excited by the moves in the Eastern Conference. Let’s take a look at how the rosters are shaping up.

In a nod to recently passed Bob Probert, I think it fitting the Atlantic Division be renamed the Bob Probert Division. Here is the breakdown by team. New additions are bold.

NJ-PL3, David Clarkson
PITT-Eric Godard, Mike Rupp
PHI- Jody Shelley
NYR- Derek Boogaard, Brandon Prust
NYI- Trevor Gillies, Zenon Konopka

Gee whiz – that is a lot of goonery. The Rangers and Islanders already don’t like each other, and those four names up there are not going to help the civility at all. Gillies probably wants a giant piece of the Boogeyman after Boogaard scrambled Trevor’s eggs in his first NHL game way back when Gillies was Anaheim property. I am sure those guys will tangle at least once. I am excited Jody Shelley is staying east too. I enjoyed his work with Columbus back in the day, but couldn’t follow him as much when he was dealt to the Sharks. Same with Derek Boogaard. It’s going to be awesome having him on the East Coast, and with Brandon Prust in New York as well, I will follow them closely. Prust is an exciting, scrappy middleweight that will fight up a division. He and Boston’s Shawn Thornton should match up well should Thornton not want a piece of the Boogeyman. The Islanders were one of my favorite clubs to watch last season on Center Ice, and looking at this division now, I will have them slated night in and night out as my Center Ice team.

One of Bob Probert’s biggest rivals, or at least a guy he fought a lot, was Craig Berube. I have renamed the Northeast Division the Craig Berube Division. Some good tough guys here and a message to Buffalo, and Montreal. Add some toughness. Quick.

OTT- Matt Carkner, Chris Neil
BOS- Shawn Thornton, Jeremy Reich
TOR- Colton Orr, Jay Rosehill

Boston welcomes back Jeremy Reich! The REEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIICHEEEEERRRR! Love it. He brings nice energy and a veteran presence to the dressing room in Providence if he goes down. Colton Orr and Matt Carkner had a well documented rivalry last season that shows no signs of slowing this season. Jay Rosehill had a great tilt with PL3 last season, and is a very big guy. Chris Neil might feel he owes Boston’s Milan Lucic one as well, but after the beating Lucic gave him last year, he may not want to go there. Speaking of Lucic and not wanting to go somewhere, I think he owes Colton Orr one after the fight he had last year. You remember the scarp? It was the one where Don Cherry was in the house and accused Lucic of “quitting.” I think Boston wins the division on team toughness on paper right now, but Toronto has it based on enforcer tough. Colton Orr, in my opinion is the reigning heavyweight champ in the NHL right now. I’m interested to see if anyone can take the belt this season.

The Southeast Division will be renamed the Andre Nazarov Division. They need to get tougher if they want to hang with the true heavies, but have enough experience to win some every now and then.

ATL- Eric Boulton, Ben Eager
CAR- Tim Gleason
TBL- Mitch Fritz

Atlanta should dominate the division physically, as they have been reaping the rewards of the Chicago Blackhawks fire sale and have gotten better, and tougher. Carolina never really has a tough guy on the roster, but Tim Gleason can do the heavy lifting if needed. Mitch Fritz may be the worst skating NHLer ever.

So there’s the Eastern Conference right now. On paper it looks to be a very exciting, and fight filled season. I called Comcast, and not only are they not taking Center Ice deposits right now, they suggested I might want to calm the fuck down. Looking forward to a great season of goonery galore!

I am not going to turn this blog into on the ledge off the ledge dot com. The Bruins are frustrating right now, almost as frustrating as the fact I taped the Senators and Leafs game last night, and inexplicably when I went to watch it this morning, the recording was black. So, I missed the battle of Ontario, and from what I understand, it was a doozy. Figures. Anyway, I want to focus on a Bruins positive.

Shawn Thornton came to the Bruins fresh off winning the Stanley Cup with Anaheim 2 years ago. He was instantly my favorite Bruin, and after this season, he’s gaining more and more fans every day. So far this season he’s had 7 fights, tying him with 2 others for the 3rd most fights in the league. What I think has been so impressive about Thornton this season is not only is he fighting at the right times in games, he is smoking people to boot. Of the 7 fights he’s had, I would say only the fight he had in Ottawa with Goonblog favorite Matt Carkner (fighting leader in the NHL) was the only one in which he didn’t win. Steve Montador will think twice about going with him again. So will Andrew Alberts. Looking at the week upcoming, the Bruins have Atlanta (Eric Boulton) and Buffalo (Steve Montador, and Paul Gaustad. Two guys he’s already fought, and beat.) Next Week brings St. Louis (Cam Janssen, BJ Crombeen) and Minnesota (“Sheriff” Shane Hnidy) so it doesn’t get much easier.

Thornton’s balance looks good, and his anger is visible when he fights this season. He’s been devastating with his shake off the elbow pad, and then lower the boom move all year. I am not sure if he’s into the MMA stuff, or who he trained with this off season, but whatever he did, it’s working. Keep up the good work Shawn; you are the only one keeping a lot of fans on the bandwagon right now.

It’s been a big hockey weekend so far. Last night Milan Lucic and I watched the Bruins game, and some of the Calgary game. Then Milan woke up at 7 AM, so I took her out for a walk (she was super good by the way) and came in the house to find Youngblood on On Demand. It had been years since I’d seen it, and as I was telling Dean Youngblood’s skating was done by Peter Zezel, and why we hated him, I did my normal morning routine of looking at box scores. I was pretty happy to see two “Old Time Hockey” games last night in the NHL.

The beloved Bruins and Thrashers had 4 fights in the 7-3 Boston win. What makes this all the more interesting is these two teams face off again tonight at The Garden. It started about 3 minutes in last night in Atlanta. Eric Boulton and Shawn Thornton got into it after the Bruins went up 1-0. They were talking about it off the opening draw but decided against it. After the early lead taken by the Bruins, Thornton obliged Boulton’s request to have a go. It was a pretty good scrap that I score as a draw. Boulton fought again later in the game, and I score it a win for Boston’s Milan Lucic. Zdeno Chara’s fight was fairly lame that I guess was a draw, although I am not 100% sure any punches were thrown. It was more of a wrestling match, and obviously Jack Edwards mentioned Z’s dad was a former wrestler. He’s the biggest homer ever, and I love it. The fourth fight was Shawn Thornton again having a go with Atlanta’s hulking Boris Valabik. Looking at the tale of the tape on this fight, Thornton has to get credit for giving up the huge size advantage to the massive Valabik. I was quite impressed with the big Slovak. He handled Thornton nicely, and it was a clear win for him.

Not to be outdone on the score sheet, New Jersey and the New York Rangers had a slug fest at the Rock last night. They had 4 dust ups themselves, across all weight classes. Round one was the heavyweight division with Colton Orr and Mike Rupp getting into it. I liked this fight, and I score it a win for Rupp. He threw and landed more than Orr did. The next fight was in the light heavyweight division featuring two former Lowell Devils teammates in New Jersey’s David Clarkson, and the Rangers Aaron Voros. This could be the fight of the night. A lot of punches trade by each guy. I score it a draw, but nominate it for fight of the night.

Next up we have Travis Zajac getting fed 3 hard rights from Dan Girardi after Girardi leveled him. High marks to Zajac for standing up for himself. Quick tip: Let someone else do your dirty work. Yikes that was ugly. The final tilt was Jamie Langenbrunner of New Jersey against Ryan Callahan. Not a bad scrap that I score a win for Callahan. He threw and landed more.

So, we had two games, and 8 fights between them. These are classic examples of why I love fighting. Look at the Bruins and Atlanta first. There isn’t much of a rivalry there, and why would there be? They are not in the same division, and haven’t ever had a reason to dislike each other…until maybe last night. The Thrashers were sending a message to Boston: “you may be beating us on the ice, but we are not taking it lying down.” I love games like that, and it’s a big reason why I love fighting in hockey. I would not be surprised if these two have a fight off the hop in the Garden tonight.

Then there are the Devils, and Rangers. This is a classic natural rivalry game that got out of hand on the scoreboard, and frustrations were reflected on the penalty sheet. These two clubs don’t like each other, and when the score gets out of hand, this kind of thing happens. I for one love it, and it’s what makes hockey so unique. What happens in other sports when the score gets high? They can either let up on each other, or run up the score. In hockey, you have the element of having to stand up for winning or losing. The mentality being, “we are beating you on the scoreboard, now I’m sending you a message that we can beat you physically too.” Or, “ok, you are winning on the scoreboard, but I am not going down without a fight.” It’s a factor that makes hockey unique, and probably the least understood part of the game for non fans. Last night’s games are what we fans talk about when we say “Old Time Hockey” and I loved every second of it. So did Milan Lucic the dog. Here’s hoping Atlanta hasn’t forgotten last night yet, and will be looking to settle a score early tonight, and here’s hoping Boston is ready for it.