Throwdown Lowdown – Blues @ Sharks 1-6-10

Don't let Cam's smile fool you . . . he's out for blood! Via blues.nhl.com

When trying to figure out how to contribute, a light flashed in my head.  What’s one of the most overlooked aspects of elite hockey since the 1980′s?  Why, fighting, of course!

Gary Bettman has seemingly done everything in his power and “ultimate wisdom” to try to ouster this segment of the game in his reign as commissioner, which is a shame for so many reasons that I won’t even detail them here.  “BUT WHAT ABOUT THE KIDS?!?!”, Bettman says.  The kids will be fine, Gary.  Pipe down, will you?

The fact is, if you look at the scores from the open-ice era of the 1980′s – when fighting was prevalent and bench-clearing brawls were not only within the rules, but virtually par for the course – you’ll notice that goal-scoring was much higher THEN than it is NOW.  Why?  To me, the answer is simple: there were fewer cheap shots taken at skill players back then, because if you so much as looked at the Wayne Gretzky’s or Mario Lemieux’s or Bernie Federko’s the wrong way back then, you were sure to get a fist embedded in your temple later by the team goon.  (Something could be said about the lack of a neutral-zone trap back then, but I can’t buy it completely.)  This opened the ice for the skill players to do their thing and make plays.  Hockey was such a simple team sport back then, and it was fun to watch!

Today, as most of you are aware and more-or-less because of the silly strange rules in place meant to curb hockey violence, the fisticuffs serve more as a momentum-changer than punishment.  Quite often, coaches send their best fighter(s) out when the team needs a spark.  Sometimes, the opponent obliges and sends their fightmaster(s) out there, and they exchange swords (and fists) to the delight of the crowd.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.  But that’s the nature of the beast.

I did a bit of research today at Fried Chicken’s Hockey Fights to get a bit of a tale-of-the-tape to tonight’s Blues-Sharks tilt.  These guys know their stuff about fights, and they’re based in the St. Louis area.  I’m sure they’re great people.  So what did I learn from them?

As far as number of fights contested, the Blues and Sharks are pretty even this season – the Sharks have fought 33 times to the Blues 32, which sounds about right considering the mentality of both clubs.

Unless absolutely unavoidable, the Blues do NOT want to fight Ryane Clowe.  He’s been in six scrapes this season (including one on December 3rd with BJ Crombeen in San Jose), and according to the registered voters at hockey-fights.com, he’s won all six of them.  The only Sharks player to get into more fights has been Frazer McLaren, who sports a W-L-D of 2-3-3.  However, he was sent to Worcester on Saturday to help make room for the Sharks’ next two most prevalent fighters – Jody Shelley (soreness, flu) and Brad Staubitz (face) – as they returned from IR.  Shelley, whom many Blues fans are familiar with, is 3-2-1 this year, with Staubitz at 1-2-1.  With both coming off injury, don’t anticipate a scrap from either of those two.  Then again, as most of us know, Shelley REALLY likes to throw down, so expect anything, I guess.

Without looking at the stats, you’d probably assume that the Blues’ leader in fights is Cam Janssen, right?  Well, you’d be close, but wrong.  BJ Crombeen is 5-4-1 this year in 10 fights, while Janssen is a robust 6-1-1 in 8 fights.  So Janssen has the most wins, but Crombeen has shed the gloves more often.  Then again, Janssen HAS been in the owner’s box a lot more than Crombeen this season.  Carlo Colaiacovo (1-0-2) and Brad Winchester (2-1-0) round out the top four fighters (Didn’t expect to see Carlo’s name in there, did you?  Neither did I.).

The Blues and Sharks have gotten into two tussles this year – one the aforementioned Clowe-Crombeen tilt, the other a victory by Janssen over Staubitz in St. Louis.  Contrary to popular belief, Janssen did NOT break Staubitz’s face in that fight . . . that came a few days later via a wayward puck.

My dream fight matchup in this game would be Douglas Murray (6’3″, 240, Swedish National Team defenseman, 1-0-0) against Winchester (6’5″, 230).  The size and reach is about even, but alas, Winchester will probably be in the press box tonight where he probably NEEDS to be until he figures out how to contribute positively to the Blues.  Maybe Murray will scrap with Janssen or Crombeen.  I’m sure they’d both be more than willing.

Honestly, I don’t expect there to be fisticuffs in this game, but I’ve been shocked before, so we’ll see where it goes.  In any matter, most Sharks-Blues games in the last decade have been physical affairs, and I don’t see this one being any different, so be ready.

LET’S GO BLUES!!!!!