When in Rome...

So I was reflecting on the game last night and I was struck by how much I wished I had seen the Ovie-Richards fight. Not because it was a great battle for the ages, because I'm 99.9% sure it wasn't. No, this was nothing more than good old-fashioned bloodlust. We all have it - you can claim you hate fighting, that it's ruining hockey, that it's barbaric...you know you're standing up along with the rest of us when two warriors go at it, cheering on your home-team competitor.

The ancient Roman in me led me to that old standby, YouTube. At first I thought that some enterprising person would have gotten the Ovie scrap uploaded, but alas it was not to be. (Although if you want a laugh, check out Japers' Rink - there's an old video of Ovie and Tverdovsky duking it out back in Russia, courtesy of YouTube...) What I did find was one of the craziest fight sequences in recent years - the March 2004 brawl between the Ottawa Senators and the Philadelphia Flyers. I'm sure everyone remembers it well, but it's definitely worth revisiting, especially since it's not likely to happen again anytime soon.

I'm not as technologically advanced as others, so I am posting the links for you to watch at your leisure:
Round One
Still Going...
Yup, Still More

Some things to look for:
- a future Capital attacking another future Capital
- play "Where's Brashear?" - the guy pops up everywhere! (Don't read his lips if you're under 18)
- goalie fight...just always funny
- in the second clip, listen carefully to the PA announcer as he's reading the penalties - made me laugh
- watch Sean Burke's reaction once he's in net and fights break out again

Of course, any discussion of fighting on my blog would have to end on a Caps-related note, so here it is: November 21, 1998