FanHouse VillePeltonen

Senators 5, Canadiens 4: It could be argued that Montreal has already hit the panic button by firing Guy Carbonneau, but if there's another one hidden in the bowels of the Bell Centre, it might be time to press that one, as well.

Thanks to their 5-4 loss to Ottawa on Thursday, the Canadiens have now lost four in a row and six of their past eight, as they continue to flirt with the possibility of missing the postseason.

If the NHL follows through with its plan to eliminate "staged fights," we're no longer going to see the type of tomfoolery shown below. That's Florida Panthers forward Ville Peltonen dropping the gloves with Tampa Bay's Evgeny Artyukhin four seconds into Saturday's game. Eliminating these "staged" fights is probably a good thing, though we would have missed out on this insane David vs. Goliath mismatch.

Peltonen, all 5-foot-11, 200 pounds of him, challenged the 6-foot-4, 254-pound Artyuhkin right off the opening draw and ultimately ended up in the fetal position. It almost appeared as if Artyuhkin didn't want to fight, knowing full well he was going to pound Peltonen into the ice.

It was one year ago Tuesday that we saw Richard Zednik involved in a horrific accident on the ice. The blade of teammate Olli Jokinen's skate cut Zednik's neck, severing his carotid artery. It was a frightening scene (this video is the least disgusting of the ones I could find, but it could still be disturbing for some of you). Obviously, Zednik is okay now, as he played in his 42nd game of the season Tuesday. While Zednik has tried not to think about last year's scare, it's hard not to notice what he was able to do on the one-year anniversary Tuesday, as the Panthers hosted Toronto.

Florida Panthers goaltender Craig Anderson turned aside all 37 shots he faced, while Henrik Lundqvist failed to make it beyond the second period for the Rangers, as the Panthers used a three-goal outburst in the second to roll to a 4-0 win.

The Panthers received goals from Ville Peltonen, Stephen Weiss and Gregory Campbell in the second, as Weiss and Campbell scored just 12 seconds apart, leading to Rangers coach Tom Renney lifting his all-star netminder. Michael Frolik added some insurance in the third period for Florida, picking up his second goal of the season.

For Anderson, it's the fourth time this season he's stopped at least 37 shots in a game, as he pushes his season record to 4-1-3 and currently boasts a .948 save percentage, best in the NHL. He had to withstand a 17-shot barrage from the Rangers in the final period to preserve the shutout.

Anderson's performance was good enough for him to earn yet another start on Tuesday, when the Panthers take on Washington.

A couple of Florida Panthers got their off-season started in style, partying into the wee hours of Monday morning and ending up with a trip to the Miami-Dade County jail.

Goaltender Ed Belfour and winger Ville Peltonen "were at Nikki Beach around 1 a.m. when they were asked to leave for disorderly conduct. When the pair refused to leave, an officer responded to the scene."

This is where it gets good:

As the officer approached the men, Belfour got into a fighting position, and the two got into a scuffle, which forced the officer to taser Belfour.

Belfour, no stranger to the police blotter, had recently had an on-ice meltdown, so his off-ice meltdown is unsurprising, if not predictable. As for Peltonen, his on-ice demeanor (just 34 minor penalties, no majors, no misconducts in 247 career games) makes him something of a surprise participant in the tomfoolery -- it's good to see Eddie the Eagle's veteran leadership rubbing off on one of the younger (though not young) guys.

Belfour was charged with disorderly intoxication and resisting arrest without violence, while Peltonen was booked on criminal mischief charges. There's no word on what bail was set at, though as long as it was less than $1 billion, Belfour would have presumably had it covered.