And you thought feelings were sore now
To say the least, Penguins fans are touchy about their recently hatched dislike for the Red Wings. First they won the Cup on Mellon Arena ice. Then in the offseason, they took Ty Conklin and Marian Hossa off the Penguins' hands through free agency. We have a collection of 17 hockey jerseys and we've had to avoid wearing either of our Red Wings jerseys around town because we didn't want a punch in a month.
Bob Smizik wrote a column calling Penguins fans who planned on booing Hossa when he returned here wearing a Red Wings jersey, "knuckleheads." Fans responded by creating an anti-Bob Smizik Facebook group.
Well all these feeling of ill will towards Detroit pale in comparison to whatever led to the bench-clearing brawl between the two teams Nov. 23, 1983.
[View:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLzZXmDGwF8]
Perhaps there was a disagreement over the creative direction of "Dallas" or something.
You have to love how the backup goaltenders came off the bench and immediately grabbed each other at 1:55.
EMPTY NETTER ASSISTS
Penguins
-Former Penguins Phil Bourque, Ken Wregget, Troy Loney and Mark Kachowski will take part in a fundraiser to help former Youngstown SteelHound player Jason Baird. (Kudos to EN reader James Rolley for the heads up.)
Northeast Division
-Charges of grand theft against Canadiens defenseman Ryan O'Byrne were dropped.
Southeast Division
-The Hurricanes signed forward Drayson Bowman to a three-year deal.
-Panthers defenseman Mie Van Ryn claims his injured wrists are healthy. He missed 62 games last season due to injuries.
Central Division
-The Red Wings re-signed restricted free agent forward Valtteri Filppula to a five-year deal worth $15 million.
-The Blue Jackets re-signed restricted free agent goaltender Pacal Leclaire to a three-year deal worth $11.4 million.
-Predators defenseman Ville Koistinen a one-year deal worth $700,000.
-Former Blues forward Dan Hinote is living the good life.
-This whole mess with the Predators, William "Boots" Del Biaggio, and Gary Bettman isn't exactly going away.
Northwest Division
-After having him clear waivers, the Wild will buy out forward Mark Parrish.
-New Avalanche goaltender Andrew Raycroft still thinks he's a NHL-caliber goaltender.
Adams Division
-Salary arbitration isn't exactly a picnic.
-Icethetics has a peek at the some of the new (or old in some cases) logos for the third jerseys that will be in use next season. (Kudos to EN reader Matt Dailey for the heads up.)