Unfortunately, Los Angeles Kings fighter Raitis Ivanans and the Philadelphia Flyers' MMA-trained Riley Cote didn't square off in the same game. But both had sharp preseason fights last night, starting with Ivanans making Adam Keefe's hair fly around like Fabio at a modeling shoot:
Let's give Keefe some respect for hanging in there ... but "ouch." The Kings defeated the Phoenix Coyotes, 6-4, in a split-squad game last night. The other half of the Kings were playing in the first NHL game ever at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, where an underwhelming crowd of 11,603 saw the Kings beat the St. Louis Blues, 2-1. No Anze Kopitar, Alexander Frolov, Brad Boyes or Keith Tkachuk; plenty of sunshine from Kings president and AEG executive Tim Leiweke on the future of hockey in KC.
Riley Cote, meanwhile, watched fellow Flyers goon Steve Downie score two goals against the New Jersey Devils, as Philadelphia secured a 4-1 win. Good to see the Devils power-play in mid-season form already. Cote fought rookie Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond, whose name makes Jean-Francois Damphousse look like Bob Smith by comparison. Here's Cote, bringing some heat in a tight fight:
Check here for a Flyers' fan-eyed view of the Cote fight.
There were also a couple of scraps in the Buffalo/Toronto game that you can check out on HockeyFights.com if you need to. You see names like Andrew Peters, Ryan Hollweg and Patrick Kaleta, and you get excited; and then the fights never get going. So sad. Not as sad as failing to sell out a game in which the tickets were given away for free in Toronto. But still sad.
