As previously noted, there were some fisticuffs in Tuesday night's game between the Capitals and Predators in Nashville. We had Jordin Tootoo bloodying Washington's Matt Bradley, but that wasn't the first fight of the night.
Just moments earlier, Capitals heavyweight Donald Brashear tangled with Wade Belak of the Predators. Brashear is a veteran and a very tough man, so it was very surprising to see this fight end with Brashear on the canvas ice.
Every week there are minor moves and stories around the National Hockey League that tend to fall through the cracks. Consider this our weekly roundup of those stories from the previous week, all wrapped up in one neat little package.
Right about now, it seems like an eternity since Petr Sykora ended game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals in the third overtime, capping off one of the classic moments in Penguins history. At that point, everything was roses in Pittsburgh, presumably because the team was two wins shy of potentially claiming its third Stanley Cup.
What a difference a few months makes.
Here we are, ready to turn the calendar over to 2009, and everything seems to be coming apart for the flightless birds. We've already talked about the month-long slump the Penguins have been in, and following last night's loss to Boston, the team held a players only meeting. Here's what head coach Michel Therrien had to say on the topic: "it's about time they had a meeting ... I'm anxious to see what's going to come out of this."
Yeah, Michel, so are we. The most troubling thing to come out of Therrien's post-game presser was the comment that some guys are more concerned about "personal agendas," and not the team concept, which is a complete 180 from what we saw a season ago. Ouch.
So, is this team just not as good as we thought? Underachieving? Simply in a slump? Honestly, it's probably a combination of all three right now.
Over the past 48 hours or so, as the hockey world stopped dead to consider the behavior of one Sean Avery, I couldn't help but think back to the early part of October when, during a trip to the penalty box in Nashville, Avery decided to tangle with a Predators fan sitting next to the glass.
At the time, it was impossible not to laugh a little. After all, who couldn't get a chuckle out of what looked to be a rather proper lady giving the NHL's No. 1 bad boy a piece of her mind. It was hard to get her out of my mind too. After all, she probably had a story to tell, one that plenty of other folks would like to hear.
And boy, does she have a story to tell.
(Editor's note: Some of the language that follows is extremely graphic and is not suitable for younger readers.)
Calgary's Michael Cammalleri picked up a hat trick on Thursday night, helping lead the Flames to 4-3 win in Vancouver. Jarome Iginla assisted on two of Cammalleri's goals, while Curtis Glencross picked up the game-winning goal with just under seven-minutes to play in regulation, breaking a 3-3 tie.
For Cammalleri, it was his first career hat trick, and his first multiple-goal game as a member of the Flames.
Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.
Every hockey fan knows that it's not goalie interference if a defenseman shoves an opponent into that D-man's own keeper. The rule was interpreted in two different ways in two critical games last night, leading to two very angry coaches.
In Carolina -- where Alexander Ovechkin scored his 61st goal, breaking the Capitals' single-season record -- Erik Cole was pushed into Washington goalie Cristobal Huet by defenseman Shaone Morrisonn, and the puck trickled into the net along with nearly all involved. A long video review followed, the game-tying goal was allowed, and Caps coach Bruce Boudreau had a flabbergasted exchange with the officials. Although the Capitals went on to win, 3-2, in the skills competition -- proving once again why signing shootout specialist Viktor Kozlov was a shrewd off-season move -- Carolina managed to steal a charity point and remain four points ahead in the Southeast.
The night's other goalie bump came in New Jersey. And for the goal-deprived Devils, it was a critical call.
(Coming Up Next: Last Night's Losers, Puck Headlines, Slamming Jordin Tootoo and more Jonathan Roy video.)<
I got really into hockey about four years ago when the Nashville Predators moved to town. A friend of mine who I played bluegrass with -- who's from Canada -- gave me all his old gear. I just jumped in a men's league in Nashville, not knowing anything. I used to play a lot more ... because I've been gone for most of this year, but it's still my favorite sport to play, bar none.
So I imagine it's a badge of honor to take a check against the boards from the Predators' Jordin Tootoo. I have to hand it to Dierks: Considering Tootoo's history with country singers, letting him get his aggression out with a free shot would not have been at the top of my to-do list:
Last night on his Behind the Mask segment on HNiC, Kelly Hrudey made no bones about what the thought of Jordin Tootoo, immediately jumping on Scott Oake's lead-in with a passionate and dismissive diatribe about Tootoo himself and why he needs to be removed from the league. I bring this up because it seems that Hrudey shares my complete lack of tolerance for the type of behavior that Tootoo and his ilk display on the ice.
We've all seen the hit so there's no point in rehashing it, but for those who are interested in debating the finer points of it, you can see it here.
Hrudey's rant was 90 seconds of great television in which he completely refuses to argue the 'legality' of the hit and focus purely on the lack of hockey-sense it showed. In all the discussion I've seen on this, Tootoo's defenders conveniently ignore the true purpose of hitting in hockey, that is to try and regain possession of the puck. Nowhere in any replay of that hit do I see intent on the part of Tootoo to strip Winnick of the puck. His sole intention was to attempt to injure the puck-carrier. Legal? Irrelevant. It's bad hockey sense and dangerous.
The difference between his assessment of the situation and Don Cherry's a couple of hours previous was like night and day. Grapes fell back on the old 'he had his head down' canard, as a means by which to absolve Tootoo of any blame. I know that Cherry and a segment of the NHL's fans lament the lack of overall toughness in the game today, and I'm one of them. I would prefer a lower craven-coward-quotient on the average NHL roster, but defending the undefendable is not the answer. The answer lies in understanding how the league's systematic usurpation of the players deciding the level of violence they'll tolerate, which is allowing those players are both passively and aggressively cowards.
Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.
With 5 games on the schedule last night only one of them held any late game drama, as the previously undefeated Ottawa Senators scored a couple of quick goals late in the 3rd period to force The Lavalamp to use his timeout, before Eric Staal put away the empty-netter giving the Canes a win in Kanata. Meanwhile at The Bank in Buffalo, the Sens' most recent victims, the Thrashers got smoked three times by the Buffalo power play early and couldn't get off the ice fast enough, giving the Sabres their first win of the season. Put down the brokwn wing sauce bottle and step back from the ledge Sabres fans.
Ryan Miller wasn't the only goalie to record a shutout for his fantasy team owners as Tomas Vokoun made 29 saves and made Rostislav Olesz's first period goal stand up as the game-winner as the Florida Panthers as well got their first win of the young season beating the Newark Little Debbies 3-0 at the Slush Pond in Sunrise. On the flip side though, you have to wonder if the Leafs didn't have a little extra for Wade Dubielewicz tonight, considering it was his 'heroics' that knocked them out of the playoffs last April., torching him for 8 goals on 42 shots. Of course, if the Leafs had stopped a few pucks of t heir own the night before it wouldn't have mattered.
The former American Idol contestant, 20, and the Nashville Predators right wing, 24, met after they bought condos in the same Nashville complex, where Tootoo spotted Pickler and asked for her phone number.
Pickler tells PEOPLE they were friends at first, but the relationship had turned romantic by spring. "We're from real different places, but they're both small towns so we're a lot alike too," she says (she's from Albemarle, N.C.; he grew up in Rankin Inlet, a small town in Nunavut in Canada's Northwest Territories).
Now, she says, "We let each other shine in our moments and are so proud of each other. I go to games and I'm the fan in the Predators jersey, screaming my head off. He comes to my concert with a Pickler t-shirt and he does the same."
Jordin Tootoo is smacking some fine ass, and that's all well and good, but he plays for a professional hockey team located in Tennessee, which is just hard to get excited about.
"We've been seeing each other since January, but we kept it under wraps," admits Pickler. "I am this country bumpkin and he's an Eskimo" (I believe "Inuit" is what she meant to say).
Anyway, Pickler -- who may or may not have had a boob job, according to the article -- is just as excited as can be. She notes that she is looking forward to visiting Tootoo's remote northern Canadian hometown later this summer so she can "build an igloo," but also presumably so she can get as far away from her father (who was just arrested for the second time this year) as possible:
The elder Pickler is being charged after getting caught stealing old cars and selling them to scrap yards. He was recently released from jail after a serving a three-year sentence for stabbing his neighbor.
Looks like Jordin may have to wait a while to ask his potential father-in-law for his daughter's hand in marriage.
As previously noted, there were some fisticuffs in Tuesday night's game between the Capitals and Predators in Nashville. We had Jordin Tootoo bloodying Washington's Matt Bradley, but that wasn't the first fight of the night. 
Every week there are minor moves and stories around the National Hockey League that tend to fall through the cracks. Consider this our weekly roundup of those stories from the previous week, all wrapped up in one neat little package.
Calgary's Michael Cammalleri picked up a hat trick on Thursday night, helping lead the Flames to 4-3 win in Vancouver. Jarome Iginla assisted on two of Cammalleri's goals, while Curtis Glencross picked up the game-winning goal with just under seven-minutes to play in regulation, breaking a 3-3 tie.
Last night on his Behind the Mask segment on HNiC, Kelly Hrudey made no bones about what the thought of Jordin Tootoo, immediately jumping on Scott Oake's lead-in with a passionate and dismissive diatribe about Tootoo himself and why he needs to be removed from the league. I bring this up because it seems that Hrudey shares my complete lack of tolerance for the type of behavior that Tootoo and his ilk display on the ice. 
Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.
As J.P. previously reported here on NHL FanHouse, former "American Idol" loser Kellie Pickler is in the throws of passion with Nashville Predators winger Jordin Tootoo, a professional pain-in-the-ass who still finds time for beer and blondes. Pickler dished on her relationship in an interview with People Magazine: 
While most everything hockey-related in Nashville seems to be going to hell in a hand basket these days, the one thing that apparently isn't is Predators forward/pest Jordin Tootoo's love life.
