Godard dropping Orr

Silence from the MSG broadcast is always a good sign...



Kudos to Eric Godard for setting the tone literally right out of the gates....He's half the price of Georges Laraque, and actually drops the gloves*!


*14 times to BGL's 5, though Laraque has been sidelined with a nagging groin injury.

Biz Nasty gives McIver the business

You know it's almost a shame that the Penguins have signed Eric Godard for three years, it seems that is making his case to be an NHL enforcer.

Biz Nasty now improves to 4-0 in his NHL fighting career according to the voters over at hockeyfights.com. And he's winning big percentage of the votes too: 97%, 85%, 65% and 88% of the votes.

Feeling down on your luck? Play the Isles

Losing streak, what losing streak...Playing the Islanders was exactly what the doctor ordered.

• Credit Petr Sykora--or perhaps blame Joey MacDonald--for letting this one get out of hand. After Mark Streit ripped a rocket to pull it to a 2-1 Penguins, Sykora scored just 11 seconds later...Not to be outdone, Sidney Crosby found Phillipe Boucher thirty seconds later. Yep, from making it 2-1 to being down 4-1 in less than a minute.
• It was nice to see Sykora get his first NHL hat-trick. Crazy to think a sniping winger with 282 career NHL goals has never gotten one. Safe to say you'll probably never see a guy so happy to make a game 7-1.
• From the Department of Redundancy Department the Islanders could really use a goaltender. As bad of a night as MacDonald had, Yan Danis (or whoever the hell that was) looked like he had never played the position before.
• Call Mike Sillinger wins the "Tiger Woods Award" tonight...In his first 4:09 played, old ass Sillinger got to -3.
• A look at who got the lionshare of the Pens' shots during the first half of the game shows a lot of powerplay domination: Kris Letang (5), Crosby (4), Sykora (4), Miroslav Satan (4), Evgeni Malkin (3).
• Up 7-1 did you agree with HCMT trotting out the regular top powerplay unit? On one hand, they're all professionals out there and this aint T-Ball--but on the other hand it seemed a little unsportsmanlike. But hey, the coaches preach things like "never take your foot off the gas" and "play a full 60" so what message does it send if the coach pulls back the reigns?
• The Penguins played last night, they played tonight and they play again Saturday afternoon--thanks schedule makers. At least by putting the Isles to bed early tonight they could roll lines and ease back on the horses. Even though the boys will have no trouble getting up early to play their blood rivals, but still a little nicer to coast in and conserve some energy.
• After 2 periods it's 8-1 and we're pulling a mercy rule (sometimes like a beat writer we start writing before the game's over)...No more recap. Crosby hit a post and missed a wide open net; Sykora hit a post had a clear goal blown off because the ref was out of position...It's scary to think what the score of this game could easily be.
• To this point, 16 Pens have a +, 12 have points, 8 have multiple point nights...They might not be calling off the dogs, but we are.

Bradley vs. Bissonnette

While Matt Bradley's participation in this fight as being heralded as a cult hero in some places, we have to imagine this highlight isn't going to make any Caps montages or highlight reels. And while you do tip a hat to Bradley's courage to drop with a bigger, stronger, young, better fighter, you can still question the results. Heart and desire will only get you so far (in the locker-room for stitches, in this case). And it was admirable that Bradley returned to the ice but hey it's hockey, where uncommon occurrences of playing through pain are, well, common.

We wonder what will happen when Caps enforcer Donald Brashear is back in the lineup for the next Pens/Caps game…Will he go after the youngster Bissonnette or stick to his more traditional heavyweight dancing partner of Eric Godard.

Do this to someone on the street and they will take you to jail, kids..

"Big deal, he breaks your face. Get it fixed."

Good story from the Canadian press about most entertaining fighters (to which there were many responses) and who is the most feared...To which there was just one..

Jarome Iginla:

"I wouldn't want to get caught in a line brawl with him."

Chris Neil:

"He's probably the toughest in the league. He's strong, he's powerful. It's one of those things where you watch his fights, meanwhile, when he's out there on the ice, he's coming after you, so you've got to be aware."

And the Penguins own, Paul Bissonnette:

"I'm not really afraid of anyone, but if I were to fight him, I'd probably be shaking going in. That's just the respect you have for him and what you've seen him do in the past. If I want to play in this league, that's going to be my job and obviously I'd have to do it, that's life. Big deal, he breaks your face. Get it fixed."

The man they're talking about, of course is this man (note: not Donald Brashear):

Daniel Carcillo drops Krys Barch

For those that don't like seeing a man get knocked TFO, don't watch this..



Daniel Carcillo is a wildman. In a way, we're happy he got a chance to play for a team like Phoenix where he could be in the NHL. If he was still in Pittsburgh, he'd probably be in the Ryan Stone/Jon Filewich category of prospects buried in a deep organization.

Harnessing ones Chi before punching your face in

Ok so Georges Laraque enjoys a yoga session or two...You gonna say somethin' about it?

Didn't think so

How do you like your beatings, Mr. Cote?

By popular demand:





By the way, Cote getting mauled by a very large black man, where have I seen that before?

Good Lord, we hope Cote gets hazard pay.

(Hat tip to japers' archive for the preseason Brashear photo)

Fight Night?

We tried to repress the memory of the last Philly/Pens game, in case you forgot it ended 8-2 for the bad guys, saw joke of a NHL player Ben Eager avoid Georges Laraque like the plague but still take an ass-whipping from someone almost old enough to be his father.

Needless to say, there was a lot of emotion in that game; and since that time both teams have been doing a lot of something else too: winning. The Flyers have been victorious in 10 of their past 13 games and as well as the Pens have played recently, they’re only one point up on Philadelphia.

For these reasons we don’t expect too many extracurriculars tonight: the game is simply too important, both teams are in a fierce battle to accumulate points, and Eager has been traded. Perhaps Riley Cote (if he’s dumb enough) will fight BGL but don’t expect many fireworks, barring back to the lineup Colby Armstrong or Jarrko Ruutu lay a crunching hit on a player who keeps his head down (think what Gary Roberts did to Simon Gagne, which we sadly can’t find on youtube).

Tonight, of course, is the last regular season games before the All-Star break. For some reason, with all the injuries, with all the emotion that has been given in the past couple of weeks, it feels like, to us, the Pens might come out flat and perhaps will not give their best performance. To grab 2 points out of a division opponent on the road would be huge, so hopefully they’re up to the task before the break.

As for us? Well it's dollar hot dog night at the Verizon Center. Plus, dusting off the old student ID gets you a $25 lower level ticket. Can't beat that with a stick. Over/under on how many hotdogs this author will eat? We're taking odds at 3.5

Jarrko Ruutu vs. Darcy Tucker

Complete with a punch counter!

Hat Tricks, Hockey goalies, Beatings and Winning: Penguins Hockey

I openly wondered/question if the Penguins would be good enough to go on a serious winning streak that could catapult them into the playoffs. Perhaps it should be no surprise, after a 5th win in a row; that a team featuring the talents like Crosby and Malkin could fire off a bunch of wins in a row. But taking into account the injury bug that has put several key players on the bench long-term, well that’s an accomplishment.

Enter perhaps the most unassuming and unlikely stars in a while, Ty Conklin. The Conk is now a blemish less 6-0-0 with a 2.30 GAA and a 92.8% save percentage. On top of those numbers, he’s surrendered just 8 goals in the past 5 games. Pretty much every game in the last five he’s been the guy holding the often out-shot Penguins in the game and last night was no different when he stopped 33 of 35 shots his was.

The tide of the game was turned by Jarrko Ruutu’s pounding of pesty Darcy Tucker (more later). As predicted here, between the unusual circumstances physically and emotionally of the Winter Classic game two days earlier, the Penguins were a in a little bit of a rut last night. The score was tied 1-1 at the time but they were being badly outshot and in danger of letting a winnable game slip away. Enter Ruutu to provide a spark.

3 goals in the span of :48 seconds is unbelievable. That absolutely buried the Make Beliefs and ended any doubt of which team would get the win that night.

Brooks Orpik, we feel, is sliding back into favor with the coaching staff. He played over 20 minutes (first time in a while) and was a +3 on the night.

How about Evgeni Malkin’s first career hat-trick? Even more impressive, it only took 4 shots on goal to make it happen. That’s the kind of efficiency the Penguins demonstrated all night, scoring 6 goals on but 24 shots on target.

Rough night for Nik Antropov in the faceoff circle, he went 4 out of 16 draws. Very nice!

Looking Ahead:
``The Penguins have but 3 divisional games in the month of January, a good thing considering they have the worst divisional record in hockey.

``By contrast they have still 7 more games with SouthLeastern division opponents, who have combined for 197 points in 206 games (under 50% of possible points) and only have 1 team with more points in the standings than games played (which is Carolina, who’s not on the Pens schedule this month)

``For comparison the Atlantic Division has a combined 222 points in just 196 games and every team has more points than games played.

In conclusion, there are a lot of winnable games ahead, but let’s remember the trouble Pittsburgh has had winning against the Florida teams, particularly Tampa Bay, who’s always, in recent memory, seemed to have the Pens number.

Ben Eager is a Coward

Hat-tip to one of my favorites, Jonathan Bombulie's blog (link at right) for this gem:

The Ben Eager-Gary Roberts fight the other night got me thinking, so I checked on something. Here's the list of Penguins players Eager has fought in his pro career [includes AHL action].
Drew Fata (twice)
Ross Lupaschuk
Matt Murley
Max Talbot
Daniel Carcillo
Gary Roberts

Here is a list of Penguins players Eager hasn't fought.
Georges Laraque
Andre Roy
Eric Cairns
Dennis Bonvie
David Koci
Mike Sgroi
Ryan VandenBussche

Eager is 6-2, 227. His spot picking is disgraceful.

Yeah, I think that sums it up pretty well. Ben Eager is not willing to run with the big dogs because he knows he'd get run over. Hell, half the times the middleweights he fights (even if they're 41 years old) hand him his lunch.


Now if you'll excuse me I must start saying Hail Mary's for calling Gary Roberts a middleweight.

You dead dawg.

Big Georges mauls another one

When someone's foolish enough to fight Georges Laraque, we'll show it. Yeah, it's not every day an NHL "tough guy" has the rocks to throw down.

Eric Godard is tied for the league lead in fighting majors, he knows what he's in the NHL to do.

And he got pounded by BGL in a quick decision. It always amazes me how no one can keep their balance very long against Laraque. Big Georges only has time to get about 2 or 3 of his patened lefts in.

So now, for your viewing pleasure here's Eric Godard vs. Georges Laraque.

Krys Barch vs. Georges Laraque fight

Since so many hits to this site have come from google search involving last night's fight between NHL Heavyweight Champion of the Wooooorld BGL and someone named Krys Barch (nice spelling there, dumbass) I might as well give it to you.