Ruslan Fedotenko Breaks Hand in Fight, Will Miss 4-6 Weeks

Earlier this week I referenced a one-punch fight between Pittsburgh's Ruslan Fedotenko and Atlanta's Colby Armstrong. As you can see in the video shown above, it was nothing more than Fedotenko hitting Armstrong in the jaw, followed quickly by Armstrong hittting the ice. If this were a boxing match, it would be an easy TKO in favor of Fedotenko. The problem is, it came with a heavy, heavy price for the Penguins, as he's now going to miss four-to-six weeks with a broken hand. I guess Armstrong's jaw is that strong.

It's actually kind of funny -- though, not in a knee-slapping, ha-ha kind of way -- because in October and November, Penguins fans were looking for ways to keep Fedotenko out of the lineup for weeks at a time, mainly because he was playing terrible hockey. What a difference a few months makes, as this is actually a pretty big loss for the Penguins. He's been one of their best fowards the past couple of weeks, registering 13 points in his past 17 games. He also appeared to be developing some decent chemistry with Evgeni Malkin and Petr Sykora on the team's second line.

For a team that's already lacking capable wingers -- or anything that resembles a winger -- this hurts. Chris Minard has been called up from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to take his place.