-Ottawa faces San Jose tonight and here’s the lineup: Michalek-Spezza-Ryan, MacArthur-Turris-Conacher, Greening-Pageau-Condra, Smith-Da Costa-Neil; the defense pairings are unchanged and Anderson will get the start [correction: Lehner will start]. The Sharks are currently 4-0 (reminiscent of their fast start last season) and are a good test for Ottawa.
-Binghamton fell to Norfolk 5-0 last night as Andrew Hammond was shelled for all five goals in the first before Nathan Lawson was brought in for clean-up duty. The B-Sens couldn’t beat Frederik Andersen and the game ended with a bunch of meaningless fights. Here’s the boxscore. Binghamton faces Norfolk again tonight and have made a few changes to their lineup, with Darren Kramer replacing Shane Prince and Tyler Eckford/Ben Blood dressing instead of Troy Rutkowski/Michael Sdao. Lawson will start and here are the lines: Hoffman-Zibanejad-Petersson, Dziurzunski-Grant-Robinson, Puempel-O’Brien-Kramer, Schneider-Hamilton-Cowick; defensive pairings weren’t posted, but I’d expect Blood to play with Wideman and Eckford to play with Claesson.
-Elmira has begun trimming their roster, releasing Mike McDonald, Scott Morongell, Tyler Noseworthy, Daniel Barczuk, Corey Bellamy, and Mike Monfredo.
–Jeff Marek does his best to defend fighting, allowing that “tradition” isn’t an argument, so he goes for the “players consented” as justification (which presumably means if guys want to swing their sticks at each other we should let that happen too). He tells us staged fights are fine and if you disagree:
indicates you’re being dishonest or haven’t watched the game long enough
But wait Jeff, didn’t you preface your article with:
less a conversation than two groups of people who’ve made up their minds, dug in their heels and covered their ears
I guess telling people who disagree with you that they are dishonest and don’t watch the game enough is an example of reasoned debate. He then says we can’t compare the NHL to the NFL (where fighting is banned) because:
Hockey is a flow game, not a stop and start affair
So it’s like Basketball…which also banned fighting. If someone can explain how “flow” equals “fighting is justified” please do so in the comments below. Jeff then tells us a fighting ban will mean no one will buy tickets because…er, someone told him that. Now, I realise Marek isn’t a serious journalist and that this kind of garbage is typical from Sportsnet, but it’s always worth addressing because some people take published material at face value. When you read his entire article he doesn’t actually formulate a single argument–he just says things are true without justifying them and is utterly indifferent to the physical trauma suffered by those who engage in the practice. What fascinates me is how threatened some people are at the thought of fighting being removed from the game–how is that removal going to adversely impact their lives?
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
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eyeonthesens 
Unless you are talking about a seven seconds or less offense, basketball isn’t a flow game at all. There are plenty of stops and starts. Even the players themselves deliberately slow the game down every possession.
Do you accept Marek’s argument that “flow” means fighting is okay?