Apologies for this being kind of late. We had to run down to the office to work on your grandparents' newspaper:
Panthers defenseman Keith Ballard didn't have a problem with Sidney Crosby challenging to a fight (above). From George Richards of the Miami Herald:
"Usually after something like that you
have to expect that someone is coming. He kind of just came to me, so
I got my gloves off quick. I think it's a clean hit, I don't know if
they do or not. But that's part of it. They were on the power play, so they
didn't have a bunch of tough guys out there. I expected someone to
come, I didn't know who it would be. He's their captain and he
understands that no matter who it is, you have to do something. He's
an intense player, competitive. At that point of the game, that was
pretty much the right thing to do."
Panthers forward David Booth called the fight "cool:"
"He's frustrated. When you hit, get
physical, it gets under your skin. It got under his skin. Everyone.
That was big. I think everyone knows who Crosby is, so that fight
boosted the crowd up. You respect players out there, but
Ballard made a big hit out there and he was sticking up for his
teammate. At least he challenged him and didn't sucker him like he
did McLean the last time. That was kind of cool."
Ballard's hit on Evgeni Malkin and his fight with Crosby:
(Photo: Steve Mitchell/Associated Press)
Posted
Apr 05 2009, 11:30 PM
by
Seth Rorabaugh