ANAHEIM, Calif. -- It was only a couple hours before puck drop that Mark Friedman found out he'd be drawing into the lineup for an under-the-weather Kris Letang in the Penguins' 6-3 victory over the Ducks here at the Honda Center Friday night.
Although he's in and out of the lineup, Friedman is the Penguins' biggest pest and most willing player to ruffle the feathers and get under the skin of the opposition. Sometimes it's just standing up the opposition, physically, so that someone like Jason Zucker or Marcus Pettersson doesn't have to.
Toward the end of the first period against the Ducks, Jake Guentzel was tripped up in pursuit of the puck by Kevin Shattenkirk:
It was hardly a dirty play, but Friedman hardly cared. Even though a penalty was called on Shattenkirk, Friedman went after the Ducks defenseman.
Both players dropped the gloves, but after taking a single punch from Shattenkirk, Friedman tackled his counterpart to the ice in what turned out to be a rather anticlimactic scrap:
The scrap was so anticlimactic that both players received roughing minors rather than fighting majors.
"We were kind of getting chippy with each other back in Pittsburgh," Friedman said of Shattenkirk. "I saw Guentzel stomach-first on the ice. I thought he got hit. So I said, 'Hey, how are ya?'"
Good performance, bad performance, or anything in between, Friedman's presence in the lineup is never, ever boring.
