NHL pittsburgh Penguins

Every Friday, FanHouse sifts through the rubble and picks the best NHL fight, with the help of HockeyFights.com.

A light week on the card, but there was a relatively surprising bout and some pretty good ones to choose from. Highlighting it is our favorite former Princeton player, a gentleman who has made a name for himself by being a really good fighter. Of course, the big news of the week involved a team captain dropping the gloves with a random defenseman.

The power play unit for the Pittsburgh Penguins hasn't exactly been a model of consistency since the start of the 2008-09 season, finishing 20th in the league a year ago, and currently residing in the 22nd spot through their first 13 games of this season.

Take the unit's quarterback, Sergei Gonchar, and arguably the team's best player, Evgeni Malkin, out of the lineup, and it goes from maddening inconsistency to complete disaster.

While fighting isn't at all legal in hockey, there is an understanding with players. Some employ enforcer-type guys whose job is to mix it up with those who try to mess with a team's skill players.

You'll see captains and other team leaders sometimes willing to mix it up, too, even if that's not their reputation. Last year, Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby made waves by starting a fight off a faceoff in a game. On Saturday, Crosby was back dropping the gloves, this time with an even more unlikely opponent.

After losing No. 1 defenseman Sergei Gonchar to a broken a wrist over a week ago, the Pittsburgh Penguins will be without another top player as the reigning NHL scoring champion, Evgeni Malkin, will be out of the lineup for two-to-three weeks with a shoulder strain.

According to head coach Dan Bylsma the injury happened roughly 10 days ago, and sitting him out is a precautionary move at this point.

Since Gretz was at Wednesday's Penguins vs. Canadiens game for FanHouse, consider this your abbreviated version of Newsmakers in the NHL, our weekday recap of the previous night's action across the league.

PITTSBURGH -- I'm not quite sure how it happened, but I'm probably the only hockey fan in the world that had never seen a player record a hat trick in person, whether it be as a fan in the stands, or sitting in the press box. Thanks to Sidney Crosby's three goal effort on Wednesday, I can now cross that off the list.

Some pretty big injury news around the NHL today, as the Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins learned they will be without some key players for at least the next month.

In Boston, the Bruins will be without their top playmaker, center Marc Savard, for the next four-to-six weeks because of broken left foot, which comes just two days after power forward Milan Lucic had surgery on a broken finger, which will also sideline him for more than a month.

Newsmakers in the NHL: During the regular season it's our weekday look at the previous night's action and some of the story lines taking place around the league. Have a tip or something you want linked? Send it in to nhlfanhouse@gmail.com.

PITTSBURGH -- St. Louis Blues head coach Andy Murray lifted his starting goaltender, Chris Mason, following the second period of his team's 5-1 loss in Pittsburgh on Tuesday night. And it wasn't due to poor performance by the veteran netminder.

Sure, he gave up four goals through two periods, but the Penguins were coming at him in waves over the opening 40 minutes. Had it not been for the play of Mason, the Penguins could have -- and would have -- blown the doors off this game much earlier than they did.

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PITTSBURGH -- I'm live at Mellon Arena for tonight's Pittsburgh Penguins vs. St. Louis Blues game and will be live-blogging all of the action on the ice starting at 7 PM ET. Keep checking back for live updates as they happen.

The Carolina Hurricanes rewarded Cam Ward with a six-year contract extension this past summer, and based on Wednesday's game against Pittsburgh, it was money well spent.

The Hurricanes overcame a 2-0 third period deficit to force overtime, and while Ray Whitney scored both goals in the rally, it was Ward that made it possible with his sprawling glove-save on Bill Guerin after some tic-tac-toe passing from Sidney Crosby and Chris Kunitz midway through the third period.

Video after the jump.

We already talked about the ending to Thursday's Pittsburgh vs. Philadelphia game and the Penguins claim that Flyers forward Scott Hartnell took a bite out of Kris Letang's finger. After a conference call with league disciplinary czar Colin Campbell on Friday, it was determined that Hartnell will not face any additional discipline due to a lack of evidence.

Video of the incident, including a new nickname for Hartnell, after the jump.