One of the reasons the Sean Avery signing last summer seemed a little superfluous for the Dallas Stars was because they already had one of the NHL's preeminent pests in Steve Ott.
We're talking about a guy so dedicated to the dark arts of human agitation that he studied "sensitive phrases" in Russian, Swedish, Finnish, German, French and Czech just to tick off opponents in the 2001 World Junior championship tournament.
In last night's 4-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers, Ott lit the fuse for a rather wild scene in the third period. On the forecheck, he nailed defenseman Tom Gilbert up high for a clear interference penalty. That prompted Oilers goalie Dwayne Roloson (!) to skate over and knock Ott down. (We can only assume this was in preparation for Rolo's finishing move, the paddle to the berries.)
With Ott on the ice, Ladislav Smid skated over and ... we don't know. Coddled him? Asked him for a horsey ride? Meanwhile, Ethan Moreau dropped his mitts and skated in to jump on the pile, attempting to pull Ott out for some retribution while giving him a cheap shot while Ott was kneeling on the ice. Later, Nicklas Grossman won a short altercation with Moreau by "pinning" him. Dallas hasn't seen this much wrestling since the heyday of the Von Erich clan.
Here's the sometimes-hilarious action from last night, which led to a ton of penalties:
Sports
Stars writer Mike Heika watched the game from home, and thinks he saw some more of that infamous Ott wit after a Dallas goal:
On the faceoff after Jere Lehtinen's goal, I could swear that Steve Ott was saying "Hey" to his Oilers opponent as the goal song played. He wasn't shouting, he was sort of whispering to the guy, who was inches away. It was 4-2, and Ott was just digging the dagger in. It was like, "da da da da da da," and then Ott would just smile with that smart-alec smile of his and say, "Hey." The guy reminds me of Butch and Woim from the Little Rascals
Butch and Woim? Sounds otay to us.
