Throwdown Lowdown – Blues @ Coyotes 3-2-10

Obviously Matt Greene whizzed in Paul Bissonnette's Cheerios that morning. Image via mlive.com

Well . . . welcome back.  It was a long, exhausting Winter Olympic break, but we’ve all finally made it through the horror that is the NHL break.  Congratulations to David Backes and Erik Johnson in doing your mightiest to help the United States defend Her honor in Vancouver and for helping give us a hell of a show on Sunday.  Sure, silver is disappointing to you guys, but thrilling to most of us.  Also, big props to Roman Polak, who played well despite his Czech Republic team falling short of the medal round.

The end of the Olympic break means two things: 1) St. Louis Blues hockey is back, and 2) THE THROWDOWN LOWDOWN IS BACK!  YYYYYYYYYES!  So let’s get to it.

The final game before the break was an upset of shocking proportions over the Washington Capitals that included suspension-actionable activity followed by a tail-whipping of a fight.  Cam Janssen – brainiac he is never known to be – pummeled Matt Bradley to the ice a full three seconds after Bradley released a pass toward the net.  To Janssen’s credit, Bradley DID stand there and admire it for a while.  That doesn’t excuse what he did; however, five games may have been a bit much for a suspension.  Anyway, the questionable hit was followed by an absolute hammering by Janssen over Quintin Laing, who was in trying to defend his teammate.  Admirable, but futile.  Janssen is now 9-3-3 in fights this season and gets to sit next to Larry Pleau and Company for a short while.  The Blues move into a tie with the Philadelphia Flyers for 4th in the league with 54 fights and a record of 22-17-15.

The Phoenix Coyotes have been quite the story in the 2009-10 season.  Mired in bankruptcy hell in the offseason and nearly sold (and moved to Hamilton) to the Blackberry Blabbermouth, the club let go of Wayne Gretzky after his ownership responsibilities were properly relieved and picked up a solid coach in Dave Tippett.  They’ve been on an absolute steamroll since.  The only problem is that they’re not much of a fighting team – only posting 27 fights this season (spread amongst seven fighters), which is good for a tie for 23rd in the league with the lowly Carolina Hurricanes.  Not good to be in the same position as THEM this year.  In two games against each other, there has not been any fighting.

The conversation about the team’s enforcer role starts and ends with winger Paul Bissonnette (6’2″, 211lbs, 7-4-7).  Count ‘em up . . . he’s been involved in 18 of the Coyotes’ 27 fights this season.  That is a staggering percentage (for those of you scoring at home – it’s 67%).  The other six fighters for the ‘Yotes this year are centers Martin Hanzal (6’5″, 218lbs, 0-1-2) and Vernon Fiddler (5’11″, 201lbs, 1-0-1), defensemen James Vandermeer (6’1″, 211lbs, 1-0-0) and Keith Yandle (6’2″, 195lbs, 0-1-0), winger Petr Prucha (6’0″, 175lbs, 0-1-0, day-to-day because of this obscenely illegal hit by James Neal) and winger/captain/face-of-the-franchise Shane Doan (6’2″, 224lbs, 0-0-1).

Since Janssen can’t be part of the dream matchup for the next five games, we’ll have to pick another.  Well, why not DJ King and Bissonnette?  Sure, let’s dream that one.  If team stars going toe-to-toe is more your thing, why not Backes and Doan?  Doan was eligible for Team Canada, after all.  Fact is, though, that Backes may be a bit banged up from playing his cojones off in Vancouver.  An even size matchup may be Hanzal against Brad Winchester.  The possibilities are endless, but to predict a fight against a team that doesn’t fight is sometimes futile.

It’s Game 1 back from the Winter Olympics bizarro world, and it’s time for the playoff push.  GET IT DONE, BOYS!

LET’S GO BLUES!!!!!

Information obtained via the incomparable Fried Chicken’s Hockey Fights