F(r)ight night

With Halloween just around the corner, I’m willing to entertain the possibility that demonic possesion is real. How else to explain the sudden rash of pugnaciousness among the NHL’s skill players? Vincent Lecavalier drops the gloves for the second straight game, and Zdeno Chara is responsible for more bloody hockey equipment than Jason Voorhees:

YouTube has the clip of Chara making the ice look like Curt Schilling's sock drawer, but I’m not embedding it here. This is a family blog, you fucking douchebags.

Sure, the fight was a pretty clear decision for Chara, but American Hockey Fan hereby awards honorable mention to career 6th-column specialist David Koci for having the plums to go nose-to-nose with a thyroid case full of pent-up anger (though let's face it, even at a towering 6'6", the best he could have hoped for in this case was nose-to-bulging-Adam's-apple).

And what's more, Koci answered the bell despite having had the aforementioned nose broken once already in this young season...David Koci, we at AHF tap our sticks on the boards in your honor, sir.

Whether it’s supernatural or not, it can only be a good sign for hockey that not just the character guys, but the marquee names are playing with passion this early in the season - you'll note that Lecavlier’s bout resulted in a win for Tampa, as did Chara’s for the Bruins.

Now can someone please drive a stake through the heart of the vampire that has sucked the scoring touch out of Patrik Elias?