An Elephant Never Forgets

One of my pastors used to tell the joke:  "Once I went to a boxing match, and a hockey game broke out."

Even though I've heard that a million times, I still give a little chuckle.

But you won't hear me chuckling about missing that fight last night.

First of all, I'm dismayed that NHL Center Ice did not have coverage for the second Penguins game in two nights.  I've come to realize that there are certain games I won't see, namely those broadcast on Versus or MSG, so I expected to miss the Rangers game, but not the one against the Islanders!

(But enough complaining.)

Second of all, thank goodness for technology.  If I hadn't been able to watch the video of the fight on http://penguins.nhl.com/, I probably would be lodging some serious complaints right now.  Instead, I blog!

I love a good fight, but it means more to me within the context of the game.  Luckily, Bob Errey's commentary fills in the details.

As Errey reminds viewers, in a previous match up DiPietro and Cooke had several run-ins, most of which resulted in interference penalties for Cooke.  Ummm...those penalties weren't during the last game on January 25th or even during our overtime loss to them on December 29th.  That game dated clear back to October 15th.  If that's the real reason for the interference on Cooke during a simple icing call in this game--well, talk about the memory of an elephant.

Fans with a shorter memory span would recall that before the All Star break, we beat the Islanders 1-0.  And that game two fights within the first two minutes.   Our previous two games against them featured only one fight each.  Only.

At this pace, maybe I'll be adding the Islanders to the list with the Canadiens, Flyers, Devils, and Caps.  (Due to their come-backs this season, I'm also considering the Bruins.)

This fight reminds me what a gritty team we have this year.  As http://www.hockeyfights.com indicates, the Pittsburgh Penguins (33-15-4) have the third most fights this season with 48, behind only the Ducks (28-21-4) and the Blues (22-20-7) who are tied with 49 apiece.

Contrary to this statistic, despite our grinding and cycling tactics, and mindless of our penalty kill record and goals against average, our reputation remains as a team of offensive prima donnas?

What more do the Pens have to do to prove they are the blue collar hardworking team they identify themselves as?

For Pete(Tagliantetti)'s sake, our goalie fought!  It may have been just one slug, but still, you don't see a lot of goalie on goalie action these days.

Normally it's Cooke and the other Penguins defending the netminder's space.  It's nice to know these things work both ways.