It’s probably in poor taste (since when do we care?), but I was hoping for a Christmas-themed shirt or something from Shanny.  Little embroidered Santas?  Snowman lapel pin?  With all the time he’s spending in NY you think he’d soak up some Lundqvist style.

Eggo’s suspension begins tonight and troubles the already-taxed Penguins defensemen.  Kris Letang is still out with a concussion.  Paul Martin is listed as “questionable” for tonight vs. Winnipeg (leg injury).  The good news is that Ben “Girls Love”joy is back on the blue line and even had an assist Tuesday.   Pittsburgh has recalled Brian Strait from the AHL for reinforcements.  (Strait suffered a dislocated elbow in his only NHL game this season – 10/18 – but we’re not going to say that out loud.)

Video of the hit and ensuing fight with John Scott (if you can call it that) from Wednesday’s post [link].

Thanks, Paul C.

Safe to say that hashtag also applies to:

Biebs skated with the Leafs  [link] in a track suit because they didn’t have any Youth Medium hockey gear laying around.  Look at his pants – I bet they’re rolled at the waist too.  Phaneuf is all, “You said Disney princesses!  I brought my Ariel lunchbox to get signed!”  I don’t think JB’s huge diamond stud earrings would fit under a helmet.

In a totally unrelated story, look which ad is featured on NHL.com today:

This triggered a chorus of “MissyouWhyPhiladelphiaagainSid’sdryerislonely” from my office.  And I haven’t even been watching 24/7!  But I’ll catch up now so as to not miss the triumphant return of Claude Giroux.  He wasn’t concussed, he was just saving up points.

Hahahahaha, NHL.com, you so funny.

Gingeroux had 1 G/3A in the Flyers win over Dallas last night [link].  He missed 4 games and still holds the NHL lead in points scored with 43.  Alright fine, you kinda like him don’t you?  Gross.

As predicted,  Pens’ Deryk Engelland will have a hearing with Shanahan today over his hit on Marcus Kruger [link].  Kruger did not play last night as the Hawks piled up on the Habs.  Corey Crawford, who has been benched in favor of Ray Emery for the last 6 games, was pretty impressive in net for Chicago.  Also applause-worthy is Jonathan Toews tying Stamkos for the NHL goal-scoring lead (it was an empty net but we’ll take it!)

Love everything about this.

Colorado won their 7the straight home game [link], which would be really exciting if they hadn’t also lost their last 9 road games.  But now they’re at .500 and they have 3 home games left before the end of the year.  They could be pulling up into the top 8 in the West pretty quickly.

And if you’re still watching, the Hurricanes blew a 3-1 lead to Phoenix last night in a really hard loss.  They are 2-6-2 under their new coach and are last in the East with just 26 points.  Apparently the fact that I really like the Canes and that their mascot Stormy is “an anthropomorphic ice hog” (Wikipedia gem) doesn’t count for much these days.  I’ll keep writing letters to Santa and maybe he can give EStaal and the boys a break.

Personally, I’m going with SHANABANNED for this one.  Eggo does sort of leave his feet and he’s definitely above shoulder height.  Kruger’s head is down, but it goes down and stay down before Eggo lines him up. Engelland could  and should have avoided this hit.

Eggo was not penalized on the ice, so the Hawks’  John Scott put on his stripes and fought him.  And, well… according to HockeyFights.com, Scott is undefeated in 19 regular season NHL fights over 3+ years.  He did not disappoint.

Scott received a 2 min instigating minor, a fighting major and a 10 minute misconduct.  Engelland got 5 for taking a  beating.  On the resulting Penguins power play, Chris Kunitz scored his 12th goal of the season.  It was the first of Malkin’s three helpers on the night and what a beauty.

Kruger took a few shifts after the hit, and came back out for the second period but did not play.  He will be re-evaulated today.  If the Hawks a) let him stay on the ice and b) let him come back out, I don’t see they were very worried about it in real time.  Symptoms are not always immediate, of course.  But what about the quiet room and all that?  I say Kruger should have gone right away.  Not that it bears on the penalties or possible suspensions assessed, but I thought we were being more careful that this.

What do you think?  Disco Dan says “It was a full body check.” [link]  I bet Shanahan will lock him up for a game or two, but so far no word from the NHL on a visit to the Principal’s Office.

Udpate: Haven’t seen it officially from the Blackhawks, but Kruger is apparently concussed and out tonight:

Evidently Travis Zajac has been watching the same Youtube videos we have where Kris get’s undressed by Deryk Engelland, his team-mate during a play fight. But this time, Letang not properly tieing down his jersey during an actual game dearly cost the Penguins. Zajac pops Letang in the face and they start grappling and realizes that Letang’s jersey isn’t strapped down and pulls it off him knowing that he can get him out of the game for good. Brilliant? Yes. Fair? Well, I guess that depends whose side you’re on. Should this rule be changed in the NHL rule book?

46.13 FIGHTING/Jersey – A player who engages in a fight and whose jersey is not properly “tied-down” (jersey properly fastened to pants), and who loses his jersey (completely off his torso) in that altercation, shall receive a game misconduct penalty. If the player loses his jersey despite the tie down remaining in tact and attached to the pants, the game misconduct is not applicable, however this must be reported to the League office so that the jersey and the tie down can be examined.

So, I guess if you want to get Kris Letang out of a game, you just have to jack his jersey! Humm … Ovi is on twitter again isn’t he. Just in time in case they meet in the play offs.

My brain goes immediately to what MY fight song would be – every time I see Sean Avery I want to skate out there and punch him.

We’ll let Jordan Staal’s Meg Ryan-shag duke it out with Kris Letang for the rights to this one:

And one for Chuck when Shawn Thornton drops the gloves (13 this year):

Where are all my Pens fans?  They have 63 fights on the season – Engelland has 12 of those.  Is there a song about elf costumes for Mike Rupp?  Re-watch this gem and tell me you don’t hear “Girlfriend” by Avril Lavigne.

You know you have one.  A song that comes on and you immediately want to break something shaped like the Detroit Red Wings.  Or maybe you ended up in charge of the iPod while favorite fighter is sticking up for his guys again (Tyler Kennedy).  Let’s hear ’em.  Tomorrow we’ll do goal-scoring songs.