Throwdown Lowdown – Islanders @ Blues, 02-16-12
NOT SEEN: Matt Martin, fighting. Image via clydeorama/Flickr
And . . . thud. The St. Louis Blues had every opportunity to extend the winning streak to five games against the Central cellar-dwelling Columbus Blue Jackets, but just never capitalized on opportunities given and overall played very sloppily in a 2-1 loss in Ohio’s capital on Tuesday night. Derek Dorsett, who acted like an ass in general in this contest (Really? Going after Andy McDonald, who just came back from a concussion? Okay, bro. Okay.) but also scored the game-winning goal, got into a *MEH* fight with BJ Crombeen in the second period. The fight was a draw and was recapped on the Fight Card. With the fight, the Blues move up to a tie for 10th place in National Hockey League fighting majors with the Winnipeg Jets with 27 of them. With the draw, the team’s fight record moves to 12-3-12.
Back to St. Louis and a home game with . . . the New York Islanders. Far removed from their glory years of four consecutive Stanley Cup championships back around the time I was born, the Isles are a team with a rebuilding plan in place, even if they don’t know where their team will play in future seasons. The funny thing, though, is that the Isles are in the playoff hunt. As it pertains to fighting . . . one thing that most rebuilding teams do is have a couple “goons” around to handle the dirty business, but this team let Zenon Konopka walk after the 2010-2011 season, and now the Isles are left with one guy who somewhat plays the enforcer role and not much else (we’ll get to him in the next paragraph). As a result, the Isles are now near the bottom of league standings in the fighting major category. The Isles are 3-3-9 in 15 fights on this season, good for 25th place by themselves in the NHL.
Of those 15 fights by the Isles, EIGHT of them have been contested by de facto enforcer Matt Martin (6’3”, 210lbs, 1-3-4). He is followed by Micheal Haley (5’10”, 204lbs, 1-0-1, currently with AHL Bridgeport, and yes I DID spell his first name correctly) and Travis Hamonic (6’2”, 203lbs, 0-0-2, out indefinitely with a broken nose) with two fights each. Solo fighters are former Blues prospect Steve Staios (6’1”, 200lbs, Win), Mike Mottau (6’0”, 190lbs, Draw, on IR with a concussion) and Dylan Reese (6’1”, 201lbs, Draw, on IR with an MCL sprain).
I do not anticipate a fight in this contest, but if there’s anything, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a rematch between Martin and Crombeen, who worked a draw in the one contest between these two teams last year. I will not be holding my breath for ANYTHING, though.
Back to winning, please? Thank you.
LET’S GO BLUES!!!!!
Information obtained via the incomparable Fried Chicken’s Hockey Fights
