Kevin Bieksa Is Running Away With The "Enforcer of the Year" Award
For those of you keeping score at home, that is now two 1-punch knockouts for Kevin Bieksa on the year. He had this 1-shot superman punch knockout on Radko Gudas earlier in the year.
And then Juice did it again against Andy Andreoff over the weekend.
Now I’ve seen a lot of people call this one a superman punch as well. I’ll admit that maybe I’m not the proper authority on this subject but I don’t think that’s right. To me it doesn’t look like Bieksa ever goes airborn here. It’s definitely a misdirection with his feet but there’s never a point where it seems that both skates leave the ice which would mean it’s not a superman punch by definition. That’s neither here nor there, however, because it’s the 2nd time this season that Kevin Bieksa has ended a fight with just one clean fist to the jaw. In an era where fighting is down in the game dramatically, Kevin Bieksa is keeping the goonery at the forefront of highlight packages himself.
And you know what? I’ve never been a big Kevin Bieksa fan. He’s played in Vancouver, now he’s in Anaheim, and those are two extremely hateable teams for some reason. But I’ve gained a ton of respect for Bieksa over the last couple of months with both of these fights. Not just because they’re sick but because in both of them he’s made sure to not throw any more punches once the other guy is on the ice. He fights by the gentlemen’s code and I can get behind anybody who respects the art of the tilt. Unfortunately there are no post-season awards handed out to the best fighter of the year but for our own personal entertainment, Bieksa has this one locked up before Christmas.
And now it’s time for a quick little Dangle Days recap of everything else you might have missed this weekend. Starting with Flyers prospect Matthew Strome playing for the Hamilton Bulldogs in the OHL.
The Flyers might suck an entire back full of dicks but this goal certainly does not. Matt Strome, the youngest of the Strome family, with a goal so saucy that you almost forget the Flyers have lost 7 straight. Truth be told, I’ve been out of “The Michigan” for a while now. It’s one of those moves that anybody who has ever watched a YouTube clip can pull now if you give them time and room behind the net. But Matt Strome doesn’t set up shop behind the net to pull this one up on his blade. He takes a bouncing puck off the boards on the fly and wraps it around and tucks it right over the shoulder. That’s filthy filthy filthy filthy. I’m sure Dale Weise can pull that off too.
Staying in the OHL, we have Darian Pilon of the Sudbury Wolves going between the legs on the penalty kill and then finishing it off with a celly worthy of a Dangle Days highlight itself.
Not sure who the defenseman is here who got turnstyle’d but he deserved to get his ass beat by the Kitchener goalie after this one for leaving him out to dry like that.
Nashville vs Carolina was a dangler’s paradise. First we had Viktor Arvidsson going between the legs before sniping bar south.
Then we had Teuvo Teravainen going bardown on the backhand to give the Canes the win in a shootout.
The Scandinavians had themselves a night in Raleigh.
And then finally…. the NHL leads all major sports in most hot mic moments per game. “Shut the fuck up, Stetcher”.