GENE'S BLOG: Friends and Foes

ST. LOUIS, MO - It was about 25-30 minutes after the game on Tuesday night when standing outside in the hallway having a chat were Zack Kassian and Pat Maroon.
Not something out of the ordinary. Former teammates and current friends having the chance to catch up and find out how their respective seasons are going. Check in on the kids, with Pat having a boy named Anthony, and Zack recently becoming a father with Ellery. It was something you see around the League with every team. You often hear athletes of many sports say they're friends off the ice but not friends on the ice. Well, I think there was a great example of that from Kassian and Maroon on Tuesday.

'"Patty was being Patty and stirring the pot," is how the one winger described the other. "Sometimes you're going to butt heads."
Did they ever. The score was 4-0 and Kassian wanted to get his team some momentum. He figured the best way to do that was to start something physically. He's done it before and did it again. Only this time he decided to ask Maroon to be the one to help him out.
"He was a willing combatant," said the one tough guy about the other. "I respect the hell out of him for taking the fight."
They aren't the first former teammates to fight and likely won't be the last. But how many buds are breaking bread one night then breaking face the next?
"I had dinner with the guy last night," said Kassian "but I have a job to do. That's just the way it is. It's a weird sport that way."
You're telling me. For all the things we understand about the game, this is one that the average person (or average sportscaster) has trouble totally digesting.
Let me rephrase: I get it. I just don't think I could do it.
Playing against a friend would likely be complicated enough for those of us who have never had to do it but then getting into an altercation takes it to a totally different level. This wasn't a staged fight where no one could get hurt (thankfully no one did).

Kassian is 6-foot-3, 211-pounds. Maroon is 6-foot-3, 225-pounds. They weren't pulling any punches, just throwing them.
"He's a gamer. I still love the guy to death and will text him this summer," is the way Kassian described his ongoing (and not to be disturbed) friendship with No . 7 from the Blues.
It was Zack who clearly initiated the fisticuffs. He felt like the Oilers needed a boost. It's not something new for him. While the fight may have been a surprise (at least to me) it wasn't to his teammates.
"He's a team-first guy," said Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. "It doesn't matter who he is up against. He'll do what he has to for us."
If there was any doubt, which there shouldn't be, that was laid to rest on a Tuesday night in St. Louis. Missouri is called the 'Show Me State' and Zack Kassian showed me, you and everyone else what he's made of. A fight followed by a goal and an effort to be a difference maker in a game suited for No. 44.
"I love those kinds of games," explained Kassian. "We deserved a better outcome with the way we played in the second. They are fun to play in until the buzzer goes. Then, the fun goes out the window."
It also couldn't have been fun to fight Pat Maroon but Zack Kassian did it with his team in mind. A post-game chat later cleared up any confusion about where the Oiler and Blue stood after their scrap. Back to being buddies and planning what do this summer.