Tuesday, October 14, 2008

When teammates fight

A report from the Lets Go Pens message board:

"Godard-Letang fight in practice

saw it on Savran on Sportsbeat

No punches thrown, but Godard's gloves came off and had Letang in a head lock"


Now it is never really a good thing when teammates scuffle, but it's not to be unexpected. These guys are forwards and defensemen lining up against each other every single day in many grueling, physical drills that Coach T even admitted he wanted to see more intensity.

There were reports last year that Rangers defensemen Marek Malik got into an actual fistfight on the ice with Sean Avery (gee, how could anyone get angry at him?) and that didn't seem to hurt the Rags. All that has to happen is Godard and Letang don't hold any grudges, move on and sweep the whole thing under the table. If that happens, no probs.

If not, a fight among teammates can be a distraction and bring down a team. That's one of the factors of Ottawa's collapse last year after tough-guy Chris Neil duked it out with problem child goaltender Ray Emery. Let's hope the Pens can be rational enough to take care of any problems before they start....We're sure they will.

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