I was out for the night and just returned to watch the “highlights” of this one a couple of times. Wow, I’ve never seen anything like this. On the hockey side, this was a mess – there were several wide-open goals scored.
On the non-hockey side, I don’t even know what to think. The Islanders obviously came with a bone to pick after the Penguins’ Brent Johnson punched out Rick DiPietro a couple weeks back, and they fought early and often. The Penguins may have lost yet another forward, as Eric Tangradi was injured by Trevor Gillies. The Islanders also had AHL player Micheal Haley picking a fight with Johnson. There are shots of this game where gloves litter the ice like pieces of confetti after the Super Bowl, and others where benches are virtually empty because everyone’s been ejected.
Deryk Engelland, Mike Rupp, Pascal Dupuis, Craig Adams and Eric Godard were all ejected, and Godard could face a ten-game suspension after he came off the bench to fight. All this is on top of the losses of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Chris Kunitz, Mark Letestu, Matt Cooke, and Arron Asham. I have no words. This is grotesque, and the sooner the Penguins can forget about this game, the better.