You know, we all saw the game last night. The way the Wild - and especially Stephane Veilleux - lost control is either pitiful or downright hilarious depending on your mood. (Lately, I'm leaning towards the latter). I figure the Wild fans must be all busy now trying to reconcile the fact that half of their team seems to think that "toughness" is defined by how often you can hit a guy without getting caught, or by how many guys you can get to fight an Avalanche player at once.
Or not. Instead, it's all about Lappy.
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Laperriere talked after the game about how much respect he had for Veilleux for knowing he had to "back it up" by fighting him. Funny though, Laperriere has never felt he’s had to "back it up" for using a star’s head as a punching bag in the regular-season finale. And I say that knowing Laperriere checks out this blog. Laperriere doesn’t feel he has to fight Boogaard, Fedoruk, Simon or even Voros. He chose Veilleux.
Seriously, are we STILL rehashing this? I know the Wild management felt the team was short on toughness after getting pushed around by Anaheim last spring, but surely Minnesota fans have seen some fights in the "State of Hockey", right? A punching bag? Really?
Perhaps we should send Russo to Derek Boogaard's fight school. If that was using a star player's head as a punching bag, I'd hate to see how fearful they'd be if, you know, the combatants actually dropped their gloves.
If Wild fans want to put last night behind them, I'll understand. It happens. Teams melt down. Heck, our color guy once climbed into the stands to take on some unruly fans. But please, can we put an end to the attempts to make the "fight" more than what it was - an irritant getting under the skin of one of your guys. No punching bag, no fight, no punk azz pu$$y or any of that other gobbledygook.