Throwdown Lowdown – Coyotes @ Blues 12-31-10

BizNasty is pensive. Waiting. Image via The Hockey News website

There was a fight in Tuesday night’s 3-1 Blues victory over the Chicago Blackhawks, and it was better than anticipated.  It was Cam Janssen squaring off against John Scott.  Now, when I saw Janssen drop the gloves, I was thinking, “OH GOD NO, CAM!  NOT SCOTT!”  But all ended decently well.  In fact, I thought the fight was a draw, but in an EXTREMELY close vote over at Fried Chicken’s Hockey Fights, the decision went to Scott.  I’ll call it fair, as Scott DID hang in there with Janssen despite taking some very unexpected inside facial shots from the much smaller fighter.  The fight brings the Blues to 35 fighting majors on the season, good for a tie for third place with the New York Rangers.  Their fight record is still good at 16-11-8, but seems to be slipping bit-by-bit lately.

We have covered the Phoenix Coyotes once before this season (November 13th at Phoenix), and in that one I briefly extolled the grandness that is Paul “BizNasty” Bissonnette (click for his awesome Twitter account).  Well, that awesomeness continues.  The Coyotes are statistically one of the least pugilistic teams in the NHL – in fact, they’re in 24th place by themselves with only 14 fights – but Bissonnette has fought eight of those 14 fights.  And as you’ll see if you check out his Twitter account, the dude is NOT ashamed to say he’s not that good at hockey.  Me being self-deprecating quite often, I love to see things like that.  Anyway, the Coyotes are 6-4-4 in their 14 fights on the season, which is not bad.

Bissonnette (6’3”, 220lbs, 5-3-0 including a win over Janssen) obviously leads the team with eight fights, as mentioned.  The other six fights were each by different fighters – Derek Morris (6’0”, 221lbs, Win), Vernon Fiddler (6’0”, 200lbs, Draw), captain Shane “Doan Face” Doan (6’1”, 228lbs, Draw, click on “Doan Face” for another piece of awesome), Sami Lepisto (6’0”, 190lbs, Draw), Ed Jovanovski (6’3”, 218lbs, Draw) and Taylor Pyatt (6’3”, 232lbs, Loss).

It’s plainly obvious who I would expect to be the fighter for Phoenix tonight – Bissonnette.  But who will rise to the challenge?  Will it be Janssen, the man who seemingly can’t get enough of fighting bigger guys, and a man looking for a rematch?  Will it be Brad Winchester, who has a slight reach advantage?  Will it be BJ Crombeen, who matches up almost perfectly size-wise but may not be nearly as good a fighter?  Will it be someone else?  I guess we’ll have to watch to find out.

Five in a row?  Yes, I like that thought.  And have fun tonight folks.  HAPPY NEW YEAR!  And . . .

LET’S GO BLUES!!!!!

Information obtained via the incomparable Fried Chicken’s Hockey Fights