Riley and the Penguin

Riley Cote's last fight was 17 days ago. Cote fought Ryan Malone in a non-planned bout in which Malone was more interested in the symbolism of the glove drop than actually punching Riley Cote. He lost handily. That was Cote's only fight of the game for one reason in particular - Georges Laraque was serving a suspension.

The Penguins have a handful of guys who can fight: Laraque, Ruutu, Malone, Gill. They also have a bunch of guys who will go every once in a while: Kennedy, Letang, Orpik, Sydor.

Partially due to the time of the season and the importance of the game, partially due to a 7-1 route of the Flyers by the Penguins last game, and partially due to the fact that the Flyers heavyweight took on someone who was not the Penguins heavyweight (although Malone is bigger than Cote) I think Riles and Big Georges will have a go within the first 10 minutes of the game tonight.

This fight is more or less a no win situation for Laraque. Whether or not Laraque is the heavyweight champion of the league is debatable - that he is in the top 3 is not. Riley, although in a three-way tie for the 2nd most fights this year in the league, is not quite in that weight class - as proved by George Parros. Someone like Laraque only has 12 fights because he doesn't even need to fight most of the time - he just needs to be on the bench. If Cote can gets a draw it's a win for him. If he beats Laraque the Flyers will be so pumped they'll be sniping wristers top shelf from their own blueline.

Good luck to Riley.

What I really would like to see is a Scott Hartnell, RJ Umberger, Danny Briere, Mike Knuble or a Mike Richards fight.

Fights are a good indicator of passion. And the Flyers have to play with heart to win tonight.

Bloc Party - Pioneers