The Pittsburgh Penguins had one more big game on their ledger before the ball could drop on a new year, but it didn’t take long after puck drop for there to be fireworks.
Right off the opening draw between the Penguins and New York Islanders, John Ludvig and Matt Martin squared off for a fight.
Martin walked away the unanimous winner of the tussle, but according to Ludvig after the game, it wasn’t preplanned.
“I just wanted to get the fans into it early, get our bench into it early,” Ludvig said. “It was kind of just a spur of the moment.”
Ludvig isn’t far removed from making his NHL debut earlier in the season and has quickly become the Penguins’ focal point for physicality.
In 19 career games, he has amassed 37 hits and three fighting majors; those fights haven’t come against easy opponents, either.
Martin is notorious in the NHL for his fights, and he easily got the upper hand against Ludvig, but he’ll be waiting for a rematch.
“He’s obviously a tough guy, he’s been around for a while,” Ludvig said. “He got the better of me tonight. I’m sure I’ll see him again.”
Ludvig is listed at 6-foot-1, 213 pounds, while Martin stands 6-foot-3, 215.
Head coach Mike Sullivan stated after the game that he wasn’t expecting that kind of start, either.
“We weren’t expecting that,” Sullivan said. “But we expected a real high-energy start. That wasn’t anything anybody expected.”
Both Ludvig and Sullivan saw the fight as a way to spur momentum right away from the Penguins and it paid off as they worked their way to a 3-1 win over the Islanders.
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