Long Time Between Bouts
Posted on February 11, 2013Caps defenseman John Erskine first dropped the gloves in an
NHL game on Dec. 22, 2001 when he was with the Dallas Stars. Erskine fought
Jody Shelley, then of the Columbus Blue Jackets. For Shelley, it was his sixth
regular season NHL bout.
Shelley once fought the late Bob Probert three times in the
same game, once in each period. Two days later, Shelley fought Probert again.
Now 37, Shelley is still active in the league. He is with
the Philadelphia Flyers, but has played just one game thus far this season and
has yet to fight. For his career, Shelley has 173 regular season NHL bouts.
Erskine fought Shelley just once after that initial scrap.
The two men tangled again on Oct. 25, 2003 but haven’t gone with one another
since.
On Saturday night against the Florida Panthers, Erskine
engaged in his first fight of the 2012-13 NHL season against the Panthers’
George Parros. Back on Oct. 5, 2005, Erskine was Parros’ first NHL dance
partner, when Erskine was with the Stars and Parros with the Los Angeles Kings.
Erskine and Parros fought again 15 days later, but their
fistic paths had not crossed again until Saturday.
“I got traded to the East,” shrugged Erskine. “We never saw
each other, really.”
Parros had his first, his fourth and his 143rd
career NHL fight against Erskine.
“I don’t remember the other ones,” says Erskine of his
previous bouts against Parros. “I think they were pretty even fights.
“He’s always been a big guy. When I first fought him, he was
just starting out. He’s obviously gotten a lot of experience since then.”
That’s for sure. Aside from Shelley, there can’t be too many
active players with more NHL tilts than Parros.
Erskine got a couple of good early shots in on Parros in
Saturday’s fight, but the veteran Caps defenseman understandably downplays that
scrap.
“I don’t think I hit him with anything too hard,” says
Erskine, who now has 62 career regular season fights in the NHL. “He’s a good
honest fighter, fun to play against.”
So how did that first-period fight get started?
“He asked me my first shift out,” Erskine relates. “I said,
‘I’ll fight you, but let’s wait a few minutes.’
“I just got back from suspension. I wanted to get my legs
under me.
“Then he came out again and I was like, ‘Sure.’ I thought it
would be a good thing to get the bench going, get the fans into it. We hadn’t
been playing very good lately. I thought it was a good opportunity.”
Mission accomplished. The game was scoreless when Erskine
and Parros fought, but Washington went on to a 5-0 victory.
Since he joined the Capitals at the start of the 2006-07
season, Washington is 9-0 in games in which Erskine scores a goal. Including
Saturday night, the Caps are now 14-12 in games in which Erskine drops the
gloves.
