Ott-a be ashamed

I've always disliked Brendan Witt, not because he'll sucker punch your best player. But because after doing so, he turtles when called on to drop the gloves. Be as chippy as you want, but be prepared to back it up.

You can now add Steve Ott to the list of incorrigibles with Witt. In Dallas' 5-1 loss on Saturday, Ott spent the game targeting Bruins players' knees. Having rooted for Darius Kasparaitis while he wore Rangers blue, it'd be hypocritical of me to take issue with that. But Ott refused to fight when challenged multiple times, leaving Sean Avery and Kyrs Barch to answer the bell.

You can see the whole debacle below. As the NESN's Jack Edwards puts it: "The difference is the Hanson brothers were funny."



You gotta love how Andrew Ference tags Ott open ice.

To the Bruins' credit, they didn't whine about the rough-n-tumble game, which is admittedly much easier to do when you leave the building with two points.

Ott has a long history of dropping the gloves, although if they all went like this, I can see why he no longer wants to partake in the fisticuffs. I'm not a big fan of fighting, at least uncecessarily, but Ott's performance Saturday night is a glimpse of what hockey will become without it.