In Which The NHL Revisits The Old-Tyme Hockey Antics Of The 70s
Okay, so two points of fact:
1. I love a good hockey fight. Any hockey chick worth her salt loves a drop-the-gloves hockey tussle.
2. There is no love loss between my beloved Pens and either New York teams
Friday night's Pens/Islanders game turned into a reenactment of the 1977 Hockey cult favorite flick, Slap Shot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW67agGgWAM&feature=related
The Islanders were out for revenge for the humiliation they suffered the last time the two met. My Pens not only shut out the Isles 3-0, a fair hit by Max Talbot put NY's Blake Comeau on the injured list and Brent Johnson took down Rick DiPietro with one brilliant punch in a rare goalie-on-goalie smackdown.
I think I love Johnson. (THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!!)
Double entendre aside, seriously, how could you not love a goalie who's not afraid to scrap.
Anywho, the mayhem started about ten minutes in with Haley beating on Cooke, then Godard pounding Gillies, then Martin took a cheap sucker punch at Talbot and all hell broke loose.
Players were escorted off the ice.
It just got uglier from there. Gillies boarded our Tangradi and kept pounding his motionless body, inciting another major melee in which practically every player on the ice engaged in another free-for-all.
And more players were escorted off the ice.
(above is a handy compilation of the chaos)
The last five minutes of the game was pure bedlam--one smackdown after another--culminating in NY's Haley, apparently not satisfied with the punch-fest happening at the other end of the ice, charging after, guess who... Johnson, who answered by dropping his blocker, gloves and helmet to face him head on.
(P.S.: Our goalie is awesome!!!)
In the end, only nine Islanders and three Penguins were left on the benches and 346 minutes of penalty time had been doled out. Ridiculous. I fully expected the Pens to ask the synchronized skating girls from the night before to lace up and finish the game.
Holy CRAP! I love a good balls-to-the-wall hockey fight, but...WOW. That was insane, old-time hockey madness in pure Slap Shot fashion. The only thing missing from that game was this:
Max Talbot missed his opportunity, for sure.
April 8th is the next and last meeting of these two teams for 2011. I imagine the Refs will keep a mighty tight lid on that game the second the puck is dropped. No matter what, it's bound to be exciting. I wonder how many fans will be wearing their Hansen Brothers glasses.
