FanPost

Tales of the Tape: vs. New York Rangers 1/15/08

All I had to do was threaten with Philadelphia clips, and two fights break out in yesterday's win against the Rangers.  Let's take a look at what went down.

The game started off violent when just seven seconds into the game Georges Laraque and Colton Orr dropped their gloves.  I thought it was a bit suspicious that Laraque would be on the ice so early, but here's the payoff.  This is not the first time Orr's gotten his world Laraque'd, as they fought last season as well (coincidentally, Laraque's first brawl as a Penguin).

I'm going to have to disagree with hockeyfights.com's vote on this one (a first for me) as the votes give an overwhelming victory to Orr.  While Orr did get the takedown to end the fight, it looked to me like Laraque got the better hits in.  I'll go the neutral path and reluctantly call it a draw.  What do you think?

Georges Laraque - 8 fights (7-0-3)

If one wasn't enough for you, a larger incident occured in the closing seconds of the game as a hard hit led to both teams going nose to nose.  While many gloves were dropped, the only two that came to what could be considered a fight were Adam Hall and Marc Staal (perhaps you've heard of the Staal family?).  This was not what I would call exciting - and in fact was much spinning.

Yet, somehow, there's again an overwhelming vote on hockeyfights.com for Marc Staal.  Staal did not get any hits in, while Hall got numerous, yet weak shots to Staal's head.  Not what I would call a win, but definitely putting it into a draw.

Adam Hall - 2 fights (0-1-1)

This makes me think that there's a less-than-reliable factor on the votes I've been looking at, and perhaps (just perhaps) I should relook the win/loss/draw factor and reevaluate the records of this season's Pens.  Stay tuned for that one - it'll be forthcoming shortly.

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