FanHouse Steve Ott

You might have heard that a recent Sports Illustrated poll of 324 NHL players resulted in Chris Pronger and Steve Ott being named the dirtiest players in the game, with Jarkko Ruutu falling just a hair behind.

Pronger brushed off the "honor," saying "That's their prerogative. There's always a lot of whining out on the ice." Pronger might be able to dismiss his overly-rugged play, but a picture is worth a thousand words. And videos? Well, the proof is in the pudding. After the jump, videos of Pronger doing the dirty work.

Steve Ott is a tough guy. Not in the Derek Boogaard sense, because Ott has a ton more skill, but still tough. He has already set a career high with 12 goals in just 44 games played, and Ott has won the respect of his teammates because of his willingness to take punishment in order to make plays around the net.

Ott can also be a bit of an agitator, as seen at the end of Saturday's 4-3 loss to Anaheim. He took a couple extra whacks at Ducks defenseman Scott Niedermayer, drawing the ire of goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere and enforcer Travis Moen.

Flyers 3, Thrashers 2: Thanks to a pair of goals from Jeff Carter the Flyers were able to hold off a late rally from Atlanta to pick a 3-2 win. Trailing 3-0 late in the third period, the Thrashers were able to cut the deficit to just one thanks to a pair of power play goals from Ilya Kovalchuk and Slava Kozlov, before Antero Niittymaki and the Flyers shut the door to preserve the win.

After winning three in a row a little over a week ago, Atlanta has now lost six of its past seven games.

Devils 4, Bruins 3: The premier matchup on Thursday's schedule had to be the New Jersey-Boston tilt, and it didn't disappoint as the Devils took a 4-3 decision in overtime. Jamie Langenbrunner scored a pair of goals for the Devils, including the game-winner 1:11 into overtime.

After jumping out to a 2-0 lead through the first two periods, New Jersey watched the Bruins roar back with three goals in the third period before Patrick Elias tied the game with just under two minutes to play in regulation. Zach Parise picked up his 29th goal of the season in the win, while Scott Clemmensen made 24 saves. New Jersey has now won seven consecutive games while allowing only 12 goals during the streak. Who needs Martin Brodeur, eh?

Fantastic game in Dallas on Monday night, as the Stars overcame a 3-1 deficit to pull out a 5-4 overtime win against the Detroit Red Wings.

The Stars fired 49 shots at Detroit goaltender Chris Osgood, which is the most shots a Detroit team has allowed since 1989. Brian Rafalski and Tomas Holmstrom scored a pair of goals in the first period, staking the Wings out to an early 2-0 lead. After Niklas Grossman scored his first career regular season goal for Dallas, Marian Hossa responded just a minute later to help Detroit take back its two-goal advantage.

Dallas, however, came out in the second period and unleashed a barrage of shots at Osgood -- 23 in the second period alone -- while Stephane Robidas and Mark Parrish tallied goals to tie the game, 3-3, heading into the third peiod.

Here's one hockey fight left over from the weekend that I thought was worth revisiting. It comes from last Saturday night when Daniel Carcillo of the Coyotes fought the notorious Steve Ott of the Dallas Stars in Phoenix.

For most of the fight things look pretty even, but at the 33 second mark, Carcillo lets go with what I can only term a sneaky left hand that Ott wasn't ready for. I'm guessing it was that left hook that convinced the voters at Hockeyfights.com to give Carcillo the decision.

To get a better idea where I'm going with this post, take a look at this very famous photo from NBA history first. It's from 1984, from a night where Boston's Larry Bird was getting the best of Philadelphia's Julius Erving all over the court. But after Bird yapped it up one time too many, Erving thought it was time to teach "Larry Legend," or perhaps at that particular moment, "the hick from French Lick," a lesson in manners.

My God, look at those guns on Dr. J!

Though I can't find a link at this moment, for years, both Erving and Bird -- who long since have made up -- refused to autograph any copies of that picture. I'd like to think it was a respect thing between two Hall of Fame talents.

But in the NHL, where the level of fame is relatively subdued compared with the NBA, the rules are different.