Raptor, our NHL team is the Penguins.

A fight broke out seven seconds into the game Monday night against the Rangers, and the Penguins started it.

Started it?

The Penguins all but predetermined the game-opening bout between heavyweights Georges Laraque and Colton Orr.

Their motivation resulted in part from what had taken place Dec. 18 at Madison Square Garden. The Pens lost to the Rangers that night, 4-0, and they took a physical beating in the process.
"We looked like kindergarten kids against men," Laraque said.

Remembering as much, and recalling the Rangers' success matching their fourth line against Sidney Crosby's line this season, the Pens opted for a pre-emptive strike.

Upon learning Orr would start the game, the Pens decided to send Laraque, Jeff Taffe and Adam Hall out for the opening face-off.

And they positioned Laraque at left wing, directly across from Orr.

"I'm a right wing, and I go to the left," Laraque said. "I think Colton knew I was going to ask him (to drop the gloves). I would never be in front of him (normally).

"It was too obvious. I don't even think our center worried about winning the face-off."

That's far from the only example of how the Pens have ratcheted up their physical resolve of late, but it's the most recent.

"I wanted to set the tone and show that this game we weren't going to be intimidated physically," Laraque said. "When you fight like that, all the guys on the team kind of respond.

"You saw Geno (the normally mild-mannered Evgeni Malkin) throwing body checks."

Such events tend to have a ripple effect, and it's finishing checks and playing with an edge that ultimately makes a difference once the gloves are picked back up.

But dropping them in the first place when necessary, and the sudden roster-wide willingness to do so, has helped jump-start a Penguins season that had been stuck in neutral.


~S~