Well that was interesting last night. Four first-period goals. Four fights. Maybe there are some hard feelings from last year's playoff sweep.
The fisticuffs are an interesting topic to talk about. In the game wrap last night, I mentioned that Cam Janssen on The Morning After on Team 1380 actually went public with a gripe from a loss last week. Janssen had seen less than two minutes of total ice time and was ready to drop the gloves but never got the opportunity. He talked about that frustration on the radio.
The Blues were the last team in the entire league to have a fight and at first glance, it doesn't seem like the Blues have had a lot of fights, but they're actually near the league lead in dropping the gloves. According to HockeyFights.com, the Blues have 13 fighting majors on the season, sixth most in the league and just three behind Calgary and San Jose for the league-lead. B.J. Crombeen has five fights on the year and Janssen has four. Matt Carkner has seven, the most in the league.
I'm of the camp that fights can change momentum and bring a team together. I understand the view that pre-arranged fights are lame and shouldn't be part of the game. If it's a good fight, I wouldn't care that they set it up on Twitter while updating their Facebook pages. It's part of the game, let it remain part of the game.
But what do you think? Has the fighting helped this year? Do you like to see Janssen in the lineup but play around five minutes for the whole game (he skated more than seven minutes Tuesday)? Let's talk about fightin' and this current Blues squad.
And come back this afternoon for a You Write The Comedy.