Pittsburgh Penguins
Turn out the Lights
Finally the Bruins have gotten on the board with a fight last night in Chicago. Nice work by Gregory Campbell to try to spark the boys. Not much of a scrap, but good on Soupy to get it started. The fight I wanted to talk about happened Thursday between Pittsburgh’s Arron Asham, and Washington’s Jay Beagle. It was a bit of a one sided affair, and the fight got the hockey world talking. Personally, I thought it was a good scrap, and had to be done, but others don’t see it that way.
The fight started after Beagle cross checked Kris Letang, then hit him up high hard enough to knock his helmet off. Asham was on the ice, and in his role as enforcer, he went to Letang’s aid. My buddy Brendan and I had a somewhat heated debate about this Friday. It’s Brendan’s position that Letang A. didn’t do enough to Beagle to require Asham’s aid, and B. It’s not like he’s Gretzky. People can hit Kris Letang. My position is Arron Asham is an enforcer. It’s his job to protect teammates on the ice against any perceived injustice. Asham starts picking and choosing who he sticks up for, and we have a system that breaks down, and chaos reigns supreme. As far as Beagle being a non-enforcer? Well, it’s not like Asham beat up Alexander Semin. Beagle is a big guy that’s been in a scrap or two. He will definitely think twice about any liberties he might want to take with Penguins players or any team’s players for that matter after the beating he took, moving forward. Beagle rang the bell, Asham answered it. These two teams will have a lot of time to think about things as they don’t play each other for over a month. You can bet your bottom dollar DJ King will be in the Caps line up when they meet again. Asham has to answer to someone for this beating.
One more thing about this fight and you can get back to whatever it is you were doing before you stumbled across this madness. The Pittsburgh Penguins announce team of Paul Steigerwald, and Bob Errey, and the whole organization for that matter, has got to be the most hypocritical in all of sports. Let’s say for a minute that Trevor Gillies beat up Paul Martin in the same way Asham beat up Beagle the other night. Steigy and Errey would have been coming down from the press box with pitch forks with Mario Lemieux right behind them. When it’s their guy, who showboated like a punk after turning out Beagle’s lights by the way, they are talking about team toughness and so forth. Can’t have it both ways Pittsburgh. Either way, I’m looking forward to this rematch.
Not Blaming the Bruins
Good News. A Headshot Rule….Next Year.
Ledge is all yours Carolina
I’m not sure if it’s because all the Carolina fans are jumping off the ledge, and any that haven’t jumped yet are thinking about it now that Cam Ward is hurt, but I see a lot of Bruins fans coming in off the ledge. I wrote earlier in the week about what they need to get done. Saturday night, they did 2 of the three things. Amazing what happens when the Power Play is working, and playing with a truculent attitude eh? Looks like the blue print for success moving forward.
While it wasn’t exactly a knock down, drag em out affair, it was markedly more physical of a game last night. Shawn Thornton had 2 fights, and Mark Stuart had enough of net crashing late in the third. Unfortunately for Jochen Hecht, he was the target of Stuart’s frustration. Stuart has been physical all year, and I love his ability to fight. He is a very tough kid, and the rest of the league should take notice. If you are going to take liberties on the ice, you may have to deal with Mark Stuart.
Stuart’s fight was very one sided, as was the fight Thornton had with former Bruin Steve Step Brother Montador. Has anyone ever seen Steve Montador, and Will Ferrell in the same room? Anyway, I did not see what started the Thornton and Paul Gaustad fight, but to say Thornton was heated after the tilt is a gross understatement. He was yelling at him louder and with more animation than the bartender of the Makaha after refusing me service on my 6th Mai Tai and my subsequent refusal to go quietly into the night a couple of years ago. The point being, Boston was not pushed around last night, and when they play that way they are tough to beat.
Another good sign was the two PP goals scored by the Black and Gold. Mark Recchi got the party started in typical Wrecking Ball fashion with a trademark tip in while parked in front of the net goal in the first period. Later, Zdeno Chara got off the snide with a blast from the point that went in off a Buffalo defender. It was kind of a greasy goal, but it’s the kind of goal the Bruins weren’t getting a week ago. The bounces just weren’t going their way, and after last night’s game, it appears their luck may have changed.
I’ll give you the fact Buffalo played a goaltender that was making his NHL debut and was giving up rebounds bigger than he should have been, but it’s the fact Boston was putting themselves in the position to exploit said goaltender, and rebounds. Not two weeks ago, they made Yann Danis look like Terry fucking Sawchuk, and they put 98% of the shots on Carey Price the other night in the stupid CH logo on his butt smoking chest. After not giving up Thursday, and playing the kind of Bruins hockey that has made them successful last night, I am ready to say they may have turned the corner on the season, and are pointed in the right direction. With defending Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh in town Tuesday (riding a 2 game losing streak in which they have given up 10 goals while scoring 2) and playing in Pittsburgh next Saturday, we Bruins fans should get a good reading on where exactly this team stands. In the meantime, Carolina fans, there is plenty of room out on the ledge. I’ll leave the window open.