Last Night's Winner: Sidney Crosby, Tough Guy

Normally we'd anoint as last night's winner the guy who got to punch Crosby. Unfortunately for the Stars' Matt Niskanen, he kind of got his ass kicked. Dallas, can you win anything?

I guess we have to technically classify this one as a hockey fight, even though everything from lead-up to takedown looks more like some mites who have seen hockey fights on TV, and want to go through the motions.

Halfway through the second, with the Stars out to a 3-goal lead, Dallas captain Brenden Morrow got into it with Penguins d-man Kris Letang. Pittsburgh didn't like something that went on, because immediately after the puck dropped again, Crosby went looking for a fight. Said Niskanen,

I never saw that coming. We were up 4-1 and he was probably trying to get the team going. He asked me to go and we went. I didn't say a word to him all night. I wasn't on the ice with him all night."

Theories on why he chose Niskanen? He was the smallest guy on the ice, so that helps. He also had only two career fights, half that of the notoriously gloves-attached Crosby.

The two kept their helmets on (sigh) and immediately started trying to yank each other down to the ice (that's Crosby's fighting style). Crosby obviously got the better of it, giving him the overwhelming nod from the pugilistic pundits over at HockeyFights.com, despite their biases.

We'll objectively confirm Crosby as the winner, albeit against the only man in that arena who fights worse than him, and against a Western Conference team he knows he won't have to face again this year. The Pens visit George Parros and Anaheim tomorrow; I'm sure Sid's ready to go.