Throwdown Lowdown – Blues @ Lightning, 02-06-11

Downie turns Matt Hendricks into Cornholio from Beavis & Butt-Head. Image via SB Nation

Some good news and some great news came from the Blues’ 5-3 home ice win over the Edmonton Oilers on Friday.  The good news?  Well, two items – 1) the Blues won!  And 2) there was a fight – between Cam Janssen and Jim Vandermeer, and it was a good one (video here).  Janssen was adjudged a slight win in the fight, which I think is a fair decision even though it could have been called a draw.  The great news?  That fight put the Blues at 50 fighting majors on the season and gave the club a temporary lead in the fight standings ALL BY THEMSELVES!  I LOVE it!  With the win, the Blues fight record moves up to 20-15-15 (records have changed, as Fried Chicken’s Hockey Fights has an open voting system).

This is the first meeting between the Blues and the Tampa Bay Lightning on the season.  They don’t particularly care for the rough stuff, but they do have some players who play an enforcer-type role.  But when you have three players as skilled as Martin St. Louis, Vincent Lecavalier and Steven Stamkos, it stands to reason that they would not fight TOO much, and that is most certainly the case here.  They only have fought 15 times on the season, good for a tie for 26th in the NHL overall with the Montreal Canadiens.  Their fight record is pretty bad too – 2-4-9, with both wins coming from one guy.

Steve Downie (6’0”, 200lbs, 2-0-4) leads the club with six fights and the only two fight wins for the Lightning.  He is followed by Pavel Kubina (6’4”, 250lbs, 0-0-2), Adam Hall (6’3”, 206lbs, 0-1-1) and Ryan Malone (6’4”, 220lbs, 0-2-0, questionable with an undisclosed injury) with two fights each.  Three Lightning players have fought once each; they are Mattias Ohlund (6’4”, 225lbs, Draw), Matt Smaby (6’4”, 240lbs, Draw) and Nate Thompson (6’0”, 207lbs, Loss).

Unfortunately, Downie is essentially a top-six forward for the Bolts, or else the easy fight-of-the-night pick is Downie squaring off against Janssen.  It is possible that Downie could square off with BJ Crombeen or Brad Winchester, but that’s quite a size advantage to overcome either way for Downie.  Sure, someone like Kubina or Smaby could square off against Winchester, but they don’t fight often enough to make it a strong pick.  There quite honestly may not be any fights in this game this afternoon.

I’ll be watching this game before watching the Super Bowl, and both look to be good matchups, if I don’t say so myself.  (P.S.: GO PACKERS!)

LET’S GO BLUES!!!!!

Information obtained via the incomparable Fried Chicken’s Hockey Fights