Fighting For a Cause: Can Fisticuffs Inspire an NHL Team?

I wasn’t watching the Penguins-Islanders Fightfest Part Deux live, but I should have been. You had to know there was going to be a carry over from the game just nine days prior.

Maxime Talbot flattened Blake Comeau, yet wasn’t suspended and Rick DiPietro needed facial reconstruction surgery after being one punch KO’d by Brent Johnson.

I should have set my DVR immediately.

But as I watched the replay the next night, what caught my eye weren’t the shenanigans that led to 318 penalty minutes in the second and third periods alone. What stood out for me was that the Islanders Trevor Gillies was willing to fight the Penguins Eric Godard with his team up 3-0 in the first period.

What were you thinking Trevor?! Don’t you know that you NEVER fight the Penguins when you are up by three goals because that’s just the motivation they need to come back and win?!! C’mon man, that’s Hockey 101.

Wait, the Islanders won the game 9-3? How can this be? I thought the only way you could beat Pittsburgh was to lull them to sleep and kill them with kindness.

Of course, any fan of the Flyers, Penguins, or even hockey in general knows that I’m sarcastically referring to Dan Carcillo fighting Talbot in Game 6 of the 2009 first round playoffs.

Legend has it that the fight changed the entire game (and series) because it ignited the Penguins and led to them winning a Stanley Cup. Just ask NBC/Versus analyst Ed Olczyk.

What I’ve always found amusing is that Penguins’ fans usually embrace this thought process. They hate Carcillo, and know he’s an easy target, so they blame the entire loss on him.

But what they fail to realize is that they are actually saying that the Penguins are weak minded team. They needed a noted agitator to start, and badly lose, a fight with a Flyers agitator in order to get motivated to win a Game 6 playoff game against a hated rival?

Talk about not being mental prepared.

Now I am willing to give the Penguins credit and say that the fight had nothing to do with their 5-3 comeback series sealing victory. Teams often “wake up” after going down by three goals because the game is getting out of reach. We see it happen so often that it is common to hear the phrase “the dreaded three goal lead” when it occurs.

That being said, I am absolutely certain that two fourth line players squaring off has no affect on the game. Yet I continue to be amazed at how often I hear the Carcillo incident referenced as a warning to teams with a lead.

And we owe that to Olczyk repeating it ad nauseam on a national broadcast. Never has a man been so proud of a false positive point of view.

That is not to say that fights can never spark a team. It could work if a player was sticking up for a teammate who was the victim of a particularly nasty hit by a known tough guy. Or if a team was just going through the motions during a relatively meaningless game (i.e. not the playoffs).

And maybe I could buy into it if Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin dropped the gloves. That could send a message that even a star (i.e. not Max Talbot) was willing to do what it took to win.  

Although I watched Crosby get into a fight with Matt Niskanen earlier this season when the Dallas Stars were up 4-1 in the second period. Sidney held his own in the scrap so you would expect the Penguins to respond.

Final score: Dallas 5 Pittsburgh 2

Fighting is part of hockey, and hopefully will be for a long time, but far too often it is credited for shifting the impetus of the game. More often than not, it has no effect or it merely serves as part of a long term team building process, which I’m sure is exactly what the Islanders were looking to do against the Penguins.

But it did not help them win the game. Even if Eddie Olczyk says it did.

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