It's kind of hard to get overly excited about any NHL regular season game, but there is a fair bit of excitement surrounding tonight's game between the Minnesota Wild and Vancouver Canucks.
There is a fairly lengthy history of animosity between these two teams. The most recent incident came last week when Vancouver defenseman Matthias Ohlund snapped Mikko Koivu's leg with a slash.
It just so happened that the Wild are scheduled to take on Vancouver again tonight, while the anger from the incident is still pretty fresh. Minnesota Wild goon/...well, actually he's just a goon Derek Boogaard didn't exactly take the incident with grace and aplomb and made it clear that he's ready to drop the glove tonight. In related science news...
Anyway, since Ohlund won't be on the ice tonight, and Boogaard has to fight somebody because...actually, I'm not sure how to finish that, former Michigan Wolverine Mike Brown has been called up by the Canucks for his first NHL game to play the role of designated fighter.
Brown showed flashes of real talent while at Michigan, but is probably best known for his fighting exploits, including an epic beatdown of some guy from Western Michigan. He left Michigan after two seasons to play in a league that allowed his type to fight without serious consequences, and has racked up over 130 PIMs in each of his first two full pro seasons.
Jon Marthaler over at TNABACG thinks not much will happen tonight in terms of violence. I'm not so sure about that. I will go out on a limb though and say that besides any fisticuffs, Boogaard and Brown will have absolutely no positive impact for their team tonight.
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There'll be a lot of shoving and maybe a fight from Brent Burns or someone like that. (Personally, I'm hoping for Veilleux to rip off the full-face shield and dare the bench to take him on, but I suppose this kind of thing is unlikely.)
But the Wild are too Lemaire-ified to engage in a full-scale Red Wings/Avs-style brawl. They'll leave it to Boogaard, who'll run into Brown and yell at Matt Cooke.
And believe me - I hope I'm wrong about this.
Brown got into a fight with I believe former UA(F)er Aaron Voros seven minutes into the game. Oddly enough, if ESPN's box score is correct, he has already seen about 1:30 on the power play. That's the last unit Brown should be playing on!
Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job.
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