FanHouse Brett Mclean

Sidney Crosby and the Florida Panthers have an infamous history of sorts, as the Penguins captain had a run-in with Brett McLean earlier this season. On Sunday, Crosby again found himself dropping the gloves with a member of the Panthers, as he squared off with defenseman Keith Ballard in the first period.

The hockey blogosphere was on fire earlier this week because of a series of events in Sunday's Pittsburgh-Boston game. During the first period of the Penguins 6-4 win, a few observers noticed that Sidney Crosby played a portion of the game without the protective visor he's worn since he entered the league.

I noticed it was gone for a few shifts -- mainly because the Fox Sports Pittsburgh broadcast pointed it out -- but never really gave it much of a thought. Perhaps I should have.

Panthers 6, Capitals 2: After a couple of blowout losses this past week, the Florida Panthers rebounded for a convincing 6-2 win in Washington on Sunday, thanks in large part to a 3-for-6 effort from their power play. After Alexander Semin gave the Capitals a 1-0 lead, the Panthers picked up three consecutive power play goals on their way to a four goal first period.

Bryan McCabe registered four points in the win, while Stephen Weiss picked up a goal and two assists. Jay Bouwmeester, Brett McLean and Keith Ballard also added two points.

The Florida Panthers scored three third period goals, including a game-tying score from Radek Dvorak with 1:38 to play, to force overtime at the Bell Centre in Montreal on Sunday afternoon. Defenseman Andrei Markov, one of four Montreal players voted to start in the All-Star game, scored the lone goal in a shootout helping lead the Canadiens to a 6-5 win.

The Panthers jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period thanks to goals from Brett McLean and David Booth, only to have Montreal come out in the second period and take over the game, scoring four goals -- including a pair in the first two minutes of the period -- while outshooting the Panthers by a 19-5 margin.

Florida rebounded in the final frame with goals from Dvorak (two) and Jassen Cullimore, sending the game to overtime. .

As long as we're on the subject of the Panthers, Greg Wyshnyski over at Puck Daddy passes along the report (from George Richards of the Miami Herald) that Brett McLean thinks Sidney Crosby is a liar, and that no challenge was ever issued prior to the drop of the puck in Saturday's game. So, basically, it's all coming down to a bunch of he said, she said. Moving on ...

Lost in all of the madness that was Sidney Crosby's latest efforts to a become a fighter, was an epic battle between Washington's Alexander Semin and New York's Marc Staal. Observe the glorious video:



Words fail me.

Honestly, I was waiting for him to start pulling out Staal's hair, who apparently wanted nothing to do with Semin's open-handed slaps to the back of the head. I can't decide if this is the best fight video ever, or the worst fight video ever.

Still, this leaves open the debate as to who the worst fighter in the NHL currently is. On one hand, we've seen Crosby punch a guy in the groin, and then do whatever it was he did to Brett McLean.

On the other hand, we have Semin who seems to have developed a strategy similar to the ones we all used to see in high school. You know, when Jessica tried to fight Nicole for kissing Josh behind the pop machine.

Hopefully by now you've seen the video of Sidney Crosby and his attempt to light a fire under his teammates by mugging Brett McLean during Saturday's game in Pittsburgh. Actually, it looked like he may have been trying to steal McLean's lunch money. Following the game, both sides had an opportunity to sound off on the showing, and the word "embarrassing" was thrown around the Florida locker room.

First, let's start with Crosby and the Penguins. In his locker room interview with the Pittsburgh media, Crosby acknowledged that he asked McLean if he wanted to go -- as was initially pointed out in the comments section of our earlier post -- and Crosby, naturally, claims that he accepted the challenge.

When a reporter pushed for further confirmation that McLean agreed to dance, Crosby repeated his "yes" and offered up the possibility that the Panthers forward didn't take his offer seriously. He also made some reference to "wasting 20 minutes in the box," while also suggesting his efforts weren't worthy of 19 minutes in penalty time. I'm guessing those statements will fly like a led balloon with hockey fans outside of the 412 area code.

Anyway, if Crosby really did challenge McLean, why did it appear that McLean was ambushed right off the draw? Here's what he told George Richards of the Miami-Herald.

A couple of weeks ago Eric McErlain passed along the video of Penguins center Sidney Crosby punching an unsuspecting Atlanta Thrashers player in the goods. It didn't exactly go over well with hockey fans because, well, a lot of people may have been suspended for a similar move while Crosby went unpunished. On Saturday, with the Penguins getting their hats handed to them -- again -- on home ice, Crosby decided to take out his frustrations on Brett McLean and essentially jumped him right off the draw.

The scrap came just after Max Talbot and Gregory Campbell squared off in a mutually agreed upon bout. If Crosby wants to be a leader and stick up for his team -- and himself -- there are better ways to do it. Basically mugging the guy across from you and then wildly throwing punches with your visor on is not the way. Terribly weak on Crosby's part. Is it weaker than the Penguins collective team effort the past month? That's a toss up, my friends.

Both players received five-minute majors for fighting, while Crosby picked up a 10-minute misconduct and a double minor for roughing.

The Penguins ultimately lost, 6-1, dropping their fourth consecutive game -- and fifth straight at home -- while they are 8-13 since November 15. Even worse, with Buffalo's win in Boston on Saturday, the Penguins fall to the ninth spot in the Eastern Conference, meaning, if the playoffs were to start today, the defending Eastern Conference champions would be on the outside looking in. Fortunately, the playoffs don't start today. Though if the Penguins keep playing like this it's not going to matter when they start.

Of all the big offseason moves over the summer, Boston's signing of Blake Wheeler is looking to be like quite a steal. Wheeler, if you'll recall, was a former first-round pick of the Phoenix Coyotes (fifth overall) and, well, it didn't exactly work out as he never signed with Phoenix, instead electing to become a free agent this summer. In early July, he inked a deal with the Bruins, made the roster out of camp, and thus far has been quite a contributor to the best team in the Eastern Conference.

The 22-year old forward scored a pair of goals in Sunday's 6-3 win in St. Louis, both of which came in the games first five minutes. Through Boston's first 32 games, the rookie has 11 goals and nine assists, placing him fifth among NHL rookies in points, five behind Columbus' Derick Brassard, who, by the way, could miss the remainder of the season due to a shoulder injury.

Anyway, back to the Bruins, they've now won five in a row, and 10 of their past 11, while scoring a boatload of goals in the process. During their current five-game winning streak, for example, the Bruins have lit the lamp 29 times. Granted, those games have been against Atlanta (twice) , Toronto and St. Louis, but, hey, 29 goals in five games is still 29 goals in five games.