Paul Mara

Does this really look like the face of an enforcer? Well, it is! Image via nhl.com

Before we begin, another awesome video . . . this one is courtesy of the University of Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks hockey team, and you may have caught this elsewhere, but it’s good enough to view over and over again.  Two years ago, their CGI intro video turned heads because the polar bear (Nanook, if you don’t know, is Inuit for “polar bear”) destroyed Anchorage while making a dead sprint toward Fairbanks with a hockey stick.  THAT video can be found here.  This time?  WORLD EXPLOSION!!!!! Do not mess with the University of Alaska-Fairbanks hockey team, apparently.

No fights happened on Monday with the Blue Jackets.  I don’t know who else would agree, but it seemed the Blues weren’t as physical on Monday as they had been since Davis (Earl of) Payne’s arrival.  Physicality is what this team is based on and built for, so hopefully that changes.  The Blues’ 40 fights dropped them to 5th place in the league, and lurking behind them is a massive three-way tie for sixth between Edmonton, Colorado and Vancouver – all with 39 fights on the season.

The Montreal Canadiens hold one of the lower fight totals in the league at 22, and to show for it they are an underwhelming 6-8-8 on the season, according to Fried Chicken’s Hockey Fights.  But what Les Habitants lack in number of fights is made up for in number of contestants – 13 of them to be exact.  At the top of the list is Montreal native and bruising forward Georges Laraque (6’4″, 245lbs, 2-1-1).  Laraque has taken some heat this year for not carrying out his tough-guy image as well as he has done in the past, but don’t let anyone fool you: he’s still this hockey team’s enforcer, and he is a large human being on skates.  That combination is always spooky.  Other fighters to look forward to could be former Duck and Shark winger Travis Moen (6’2″, 215lbs, 1-1-2) and defenseman Paul Mara (6’2″, 207lbs, 2-0-0).  Among the 10 other Habs to have fought this year, only six of them are on the current roster.  Of the other four, two of them are currently in the minors (Gregory Stewart and Ryan White), one was traded away (Kyle Chipchura, to Anaheim and previously covered in this report) and one was claimed off waivers (Jay Leach, by San Jose).

After having the winning streak snapped in Columbus and after a surprising lack of the same jump found during the winning streak, it may be a perfect time for Cam Janssen to be reinserted into the lineup.  If that’s the case, your dream fight matchup of the evening is Janssen and Laraque, for many obvious reasons.  If there’s no Cam, there probably will be no fights as “secondary” fighters like BJ Crombeen and Brad Winchester have seemed to shy away from fisticuffs recently.  And while you’d think a team named the Canadiens would have at least one Team Canada hockey player on the Olympic squad for David Backes to challenge, in this case there is no such luck.

Remember last season when the Blues did so awesome against the Eastern Conference?  It was one of many keys to the late-season playoff push, and yeah, that’d be nice to rekindle again . . . so let’s start with a win in Montreal tonight!

LET’S GO BLUES!!!!!

Information obtained via the incomparable Fried Chicken’s Hockey Fights.