“PLEASE, MISTER REFEREE, TELL ME ARRON ASHAM IS NOWHERE TO BE SEEN!”, says Jay Beagle. Image via BridgetDS/Flickr

Ugly wins count as marks in the win column, indeed, and it’s doubtful that many wins this season will be much uglier than the St. Louis Blues’ 2-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday evening. Speaking of ugly . . . I’m not sure exactly what the hell you would call this skirmish between Ryan Reaves and Cody Bass other than, well, kinda ugly, actually. Despite the fact that Bass pretty much slipped to finish the fight, but because of the fact that he landed some REALLY solid rights in the short time this fight actually was on, I (along with the voters) have to give the decision to Bass on this one (and yes, that means the Blues are no longer “undefeated” this season in fights). And lookie there! The Blues are now tied for 10th in the National Hockey League with three other teams (the Calgary Flames, Nashville Predators and San Jose Sharks) with 10 fights on the season! I thought they’d NEVER make it to double-digits for a while there. Anyway, the Blues are now 5-1-4 in those 10 fights.

And now, the Blues head eastward for Washington. The Washington Capitals raised some eyebrows yesterday morning by announcing the dismissal of coach Bruce Boudreau and replacing him with long-time Captain and long-time Caps fan favorite Dale Hunter behind the bench. It will be interesting to see how the team reacts to the change, but in my estimation, the change can only be favorable to the Caps in the long-run, provided there is no looming comeback for Pierre Turgeon and Hunter does not skate out there to board him after a playoff goal (somewhat tragically, this – and the 21-game suspension that rightfully ensued – is what most people will always remember about Hunter’s playing career, when he was quite the impressive player for a long, long time in the NHL). All joking aside, the Caps are one of the lower-tier fighting teams in the NHL a year after they were one of the mid-range fighting teams in the league – currently tied for 27th with another team that just changed coaches yesterday, the Carolina Hurricanes, with five fighting majors on the season. Their current fight record is pretty decent, though, at 3-1-1. Last year, the Caps were dead-center, 15th in the NHL, with 45 fighting majors and a rather unremarkable 9-18-18 fight record.

Of Caps players that have fought this season, Matt Hendricks (6’0”, 211lbs, 2-0-1) leads the way with three fights, while John Erskine (6’4”, 220lbs, Win, out indefinitely with a shoulder injury) and Jay Beagle (6’3”, 215lbs, a rather infamous Loss to Arron Asham, on IR with a head injury) each have fought once. Among players currently on the Caps roster, the fighters are led by Hendricks (1-4-9) with 14 bouts. Erskine (2-0-4) followed him with six fights. Former Blackhawk Troy Brouwer (6’3”, 213lbs, 0-2-1) checks in with three fights and Mike Green (6’1”, 207lbs, 1-0-1, out indefinitely with a groin injury) each fought twice. Solo fighters included another former Blue in Dennis Wideman (6’0”, 200lbs, Loss), former Canadien Jeff Halpern (6’0”, 200lbs, Loss), überstar Captain Alexander Ovechkin (6’3”, 230lbs, Loss) and another former Canadein in Roman Hamrlik (6’2”, 206lbs, Loss). Former Blue DJ King would be on this list if he weren’t sent down to Hershey early in the season.

I’m having a hard time believing there will be a fight in this game, but the likes of Reaves and Scott Nichol have proven me wrong previously by working a fight with someone completely unexpected. Nichol would be best suited fighting someone like Hendricks, though that’s still a tough size matchup for Nichol to navigate. I just doubt there will be a fight in this contest.

“That train keeps a rollin’”, but not “on down to San Antone” as the Johnny Cash song goes. But hopefully another victory is on board.

LET’S GO BLUES!!!!!

Information obtained via the incomparable Fried Chicken’s Hockey Fights

Hendricks has to cover his face a lot. Image via Comcast Sportsnet Washington

While there is little doubt the Blues’ future is bright, Tuesday’s brutal 6-0 loss to the Calgary Flames left very few doubts about this season’s final path (folks, it’s not good).  But at one point, to try to inject some positive energy into the club, Cam Janssen went at it with “The Greek God of Hockey Violence”, otherwise known as Tom Kostopoulos (video here).  It was pretty obvious that Janssen won that fight quite handily, and in fact it was pretty much a unanimous decision.  It helped nothing as far as the game result, but at least it was fun.  The Blues move to second in the NHL all by themselves with 60 fights due to Janssen’s efforts.  The Blues’ fight record now stands at 25-18-17.

The last time the Blues played the Washington Capitals (December 1st, report here), both teams were mired in middle-of-the-pack position.  “The Great Eight”, Alexander Ovechkin, is not having one of his finer seasons.  But now, the Caps appear fueled to at least another playoff run after some retooling at the NHL Trade “Dudline” (Jeff’s word, not mine) and are currently locked in a tight race for the Southeast Division title with the Tampa Bay Lightning, while our Home Six are pretty much done like an over-charred beef roast.  The Caps HAVE shown the propensity to mix it up, though – to the tune of 37 fighting majors this season, which is tied for 13th in the NHL with the Ottawa Senators.  Their record in those fights?  Not very good at 8-16-13.  Also, note below that Marcus Johansson was listed on the previous report, but upon further review his “fight” was more of “the other dude went after him with gloves on”, so it has been expunged from this report.

Matt Hendricks (6’0”, 205lbs, 1-5-7) leads the Caps in fights with 13 and recently-signed two-year extensions with one.  Following him is Matt Bradley (6’3, 201lbs, 3-3-1) with seven fights.  John Erskine (6’4”, 220lbs, 2-0-3) and recently-waived but unclaimed former Blue DJ King (6’3”, 230lbs, 1-4-0) each have fought five times.  Top-scoring defenseman Mike Green (6’1”, 204lbs, 1-0-1), the recently-traded-to-Jersey David Steckel (6’5”, 217lbs, 0-1-1) and former Blue Jacket Jason Chimera (6’2”, 216lbs,0-2-0) have each fought twice.  Rounding out the list?  None other than Ovechkin (6’2, 223lbs, Loss) with one fight.

To me, the obvious choice for a fight matchup to look for would be Janssen and Hendricks.  Will it happen?  Maybe, but Hendricks plays a secondary scoring role while Janssen is lucky to get 7 minutes of ice time per night.  But we will see.

Ready for the offseason?  I think I might be.  But I ride or die with the Blues regardless.

LET’S GO BLUES!!!!!

Information obtained via the incomparable Fried Chicken’s Hockey Fights

Sometimes Matt Hendricks WINS fights, even over Colin Campbell's son! Image via Russian Machine Never Breaks by way of Mitchell Layton

Last night’s Blues 7-5 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks may not have been fun to watch in the grand scheme of things, but at least the game had an old-school hockey feel to it.  The decision was given to John Scott in his bout  with Cam Janssen, BJ Crombeen pretty easily handled Nick Boynton and a draw  was issued in the fight between Jeremy Morin and Chris Porter (each man’s first NHL fight, by the  way).  For the time being, the Blues are now on top of the NHL fighting world – yes, that’s right, the team is in first place SOMEWHERE!  26 fights on the season puts The Note one ahead of both the Pittsburgh Penguins and the New York Rangers.  The better news?  They’re doing WELL in these fights – 13-7-6, to be exact.

Now, you’d think the presence of the Washington Capitals in the next game would make my job easier for this game . . . something like “Geez, Tyler, they DID trade for DJ King in the offseason, didn’t they?”  Well, yes they did, actually.  However, he hasn’t played since November 9th, and in his six games, he’s a -3 player.  He HAS fought twice, though.  So he’s got that going for him.  More on DJ in a bit, but first, the raw numbers for the Caps fighting-wise: 17 fights, tied for ninth in the NHL with the Ottawa Senators and Edmonton Oilers, and a fight record of 4-6-7.

Of course, people may remember the only fight last year between these two teams.  Matt Bradley – who actually IS a leading fighter for the Caps – slid a pass from the left circle that ended in a shot, stood for a few seconds and then was planted into the Olympic Break by Janssen in a game in St. Louis on February 13th.  Quintin Laing came to Bradley’s defense and got eviscerated by Janssen.  Video evidence of the hit and fight is here.

Matt Hendricks (6’0”, 215lbs, 0-2-3) leads the Caps with five fights on the season.  He is followed by Bradley (6’3”, 201lbs, 2-1-0) and John Erskine (6’4”, 220lbs) with three fights each, King (6’3”, 230lbs, 0-2-0) and Mike Green (?!) (6’1”, 204lbs, 1-0-1) with two each and Marcus Johansson (6’0”, 197lbs, Draw) with one.  I would have to call this a very balanced fighting attack for the Capitals, despite not using Deej very often.

For whatever reason, I’d like to see Bradley and Brad Winchester go at it. Will it happen? We’ll see.

I beseech you, STOP THIS LOSING STREAK!

LET’S GO BLUES!!!!!

Information obtained via the incomparable Fried Chicken’s Hockey Fights

This honestly scares the crap out of me. Image via Japer's Rink on SB Nation

Colton Orr and Cam Janssen got into one non-fight and one fight last night in the Blues’ tilt with the Toronto Maple Leafs.  The non-fight was a draw and won’t even count toward the totals and the main event was not graded as of “press time”.  So I’ll grade it myself – Orr won, hands down.  This brings Janssen’s season record to 8-3-3 (after starting 6-0-1, Cam has slipped up a bit!).  Since I’m not counting the non-fight, that brings the Blues’ fight total to 52 on the season, still good for 5th place in the NHL.  Their fight record slips to 21-17-14.

Within the last week, I’ve picked on divisional opponents and their lack of fighting acumen.  I did this only because they are fellow division opponents, and I should be allowed to bust their chops.  Plus, when they play us, their physicality tends to trend upward.  But with inter-conference opponents, I tend to let things slide.  The fact is, anyway, that the Washington Capitals do not HAVE to fight much, because they have several big boys that seem to be able to take care of themselves, plus a few “goonish” players that play well enough away from the scrums to get away with getting important ice time.  This leads to a season fight total of only 19, which is “good” for 28th in the league.  Their record is less impressive than their fight totals – 5-10-4.  This spread is among eight contestants . . . one of which was recently traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets (winger Chris Clark: 6’0″, 196lbs, 0-2-1 with the Caps and overall), another that was acquired in the same trade (winger Jason Chimera: 6’2″, 216lbs, 1-1-0 with the Caps and 1-2-0 overall, day-to-day with a groin issue) and yet one more sent back down to the AHL’s Hershey Bears (winger Alexandre Giroux: 6’3″, 202lbs, 0-1-0).

This leaves us with five Caps who have fought this season, and among them there are two that stick out like sore thumbs: big winger Matt Bradley (6’3″, 201lbs, 2-3-1) and big defenseman John Erskine (6’4″, 220lbs, 2-1-1).  Bradley, of course, is the guy who “saved” Alexander Ovechkin from having to fight Steve Downie a few weeks back (I believe Ovechkin would’ve destroyed Downie, but I seem to be in the minority in that assessment – understandable since Downie is a brawler).  Neither Bradley nor Erskine are afraid to drop the gloves . . . it just doesn’t happen too often.  The other three Caps fighters for the season are center Dave Steckel (6’5″, 217lbs, 0-1-0), defenseman and mispronunciation nightmare Shaone Morrisonn (6’4″, 217lbs, 0-1-0, sat out last game due to illness) and veteran winger Mike Knuble (6’3″, 230lbs, 0-0-1).

If I had my druthers, I’d like to see Bradley square off with Brad Winchester.  Winchester has the reach and size advantage, but there’s something (and it may be the above picture) that scares me about Bradley.  Honestly, there shouldn’t be a fight in this game, but if there is one, that would be a fun fight to be sure.  David Backes could square off against Bradley and I wouldn’t mind it either, except the 5-for-5 trade-off hurts the Blues more than it hurts the Caps if that happens.  Since Janssen played last night, it’s likely DJ King’s turn to play, and he would match up well with either Bradley or Erskine, but again . . . fisticuffs aren’t likely in this one.

The Throwdown Lowdown takes a two-week hiatus for the Olympic break, because unfortunately they don’t allow fighting at that level of play.  It would be cool to pull off a shocker to begin the break, wouldn’t it?

LET’S GO BLUES!!!!!

Information obtained via the incomparable Fried Chicken’s Hockey Fights

P.S.: I DO intend to find something to write about during the Olympics, but as of yet it is unknown what that will be. – TCA