Getting to Kettler at around 10:00 this morning, I knew my wife and I were going to have trouble finding a seat. I didn't quite expect things to be as jam packed as they ended up being though. Standing room at the top of the bleachers was at a premium, but somehow, we found a niche to fit into and planted our feet to watch the already in progress game with a constant flow of people shuffling along behind us.
The game went about as I would have expected with a good fast pace, some sloppy play on occasions, and a few sparks of raw talent. The competitive nature of the guys on the ice was never in question with checks being finished heavily and open ice being a near no mans land across the blue lines from time to time as someone gets caught head down by a beast of a defender. With that competitiveness in full swing, the whistles would get chippy as players would stand up for their temporary teammates down in a scrum from time to time with some players even coming to fisticuffs during the game. Not one, but in fact two fights broke out in rapid succession around halfway through the second period. Luckily, I had my camera set for video for just such an occassion!
Finley vs Pisano:
Della Rovere vs Bruess:
My apologies for the first video, but apparently my camera isn't keen on zooming and auto-focus during video recording.
I remember hearing about a fight during the Blackhawks dev camp that ended up with a player injured and out of the camp earlier this week. I thought to myself 'how stupid can these kids be to fight during a camp?', but my point of view has quickly tempered. Watching Bruce Boudreau's video from OFB, and then actually witnessing a game in progress where players squared off, my understanding expanded. It's the nature of hockey that you quickly take up for even temporary teammates, take exception with a play, a hit, trash talk, and make your will known. This also shows those higher up in the organization that you are willing to make that sacrifice for your team. As seen the few times the Caps players squared off this past season, the fans love the guys who step up and square off for their teammates.
