Fighting

There has been much hullabaloo over Cam Janssen and his knocking Tomas Kaberle back into puberty, and it makes me wonder about the concept in general. Janssen particular didnt do anything horrible. I agree with Trendon from MVN that it was an unnecessary and not altogether clean hit, but it also looked just like a dozen other hits that happen every week during NHL game action.

I am awaiting responses from those more Devils-wise than I (various NJ bloggers) with their opinions, at which point I intend to talk about Janssen a bit more in depth.

My inspiration for all this is borne of the man himself, Big Georges Laraque. He came to the Pens with a reputation as an enforcer, a guy who could drop the gloves and whup ass at will. In the ice time since he has joined the team, he has had many an opportunity, but has yet to do more than dish out a few good hits. Some Pens fans are a bit eager to see him go at it, but I fear they may be waiting for quite some time.

Georges just appeared on KDKA (Pittsburgh's CBS affiliate) last night, and made mention of the fact that he is now gearing up for the playoffs, and having been there with Edmonton, he rightly discussed how there is extremely minimal fighting, and it becomes necessary to lear and adjust so that your physical presence can be used in other ways. To me, that sounds like "I'm not going to fight more than I have to, because that will take away from adjusting my game to be more playoff-ready."

This makes me think:

1) Yay! BGL is smarter than I thought
2) I forgot that he, too, brings playof experience to our team
3) He is more useful than just a big body, which is just a bonus

So don't hold your breath, Pens fans, because you'll probably pass out before Georges drops em.

Oh but wait, we're playing Philly today, right? Hmmmm......