(Note: Once again I find myself stuck at work for an 8 hour shift with little-to-nothing to kill time. I found myself watching videos on hockey fights, specifically Carkner vs. Adams, and I wondered the results of Senators fights from the past decade. Unfortunately, hockeyfights.com and their wonderful voting system only reliably goes back to the lockout. What follows in some interesting points I've discovered from a morning's worth of wasting time)

In taking up this study in Senators' fights, and more specifically the results of the engagements, I was curious to know a few things. First, I wondered the winning percentages of the Senators' fighters, especially the prolific ones, in the past 5 seasons. Second, I wondered about some of the chronic antagonists that the Senators face. Finally, I was curious about how Matt Carkner (one of my new favorite Sens) is doing in comparison with some of the other Senators. My findings are as follows:

PART 1: SENATORS FIGHTERS

The following table lists the players, in order of total number of fights, their win-loss-draw record according to hockeyfights.com, and their win percentage (2 pts for a W, 1 for a draw, 0 for a L).

A few things in this interested me:

- Through half a season, Matt Carkner is already #3 in fighting over the past 5 years.

- Though not in this chart (in my more elaborate spreadsheet), Chris Neil was 18-2-5 with Brian McGrattan on the roster, but 8-7-6 without.

- Dany Heatley is a douchebag.

- Mike Fisher. Undefeated.

- Also not on this chart, but Mike Commodore is the only player in the past 5 years to fight both for and against the Senators

- Sort of a tangent, but I miss Ray Emery.

- Jason Spezza vs. Carlo Colaiacovo. Enough said.

- McGrattan: 6'4, 235 lbs. Carkner: 6'4, 231 lbs. Neil: 6'1, 215 lbs. One of these things isn't really like the others.

PART 2: ANTAGONISTS

Included in this chart is those players that have fought Senators more than 3 times in the past 5 years. These numbers are from the point of view of the player, so a W represents a time they've beaten a Senator.

Again, some interesting stats here:

- Andrew Peters with 10 fights against the Senators? Unreal.

- Steve Downie is a douche. A winless douche, the worst kind.

- I'm kind of thinking the Sabres don't like us much. The Devils too.

In conclusion, there are certainly some interesting trends over the past 5 years. As expected, fighting is typically left up to the pugilists (McGrattan, Neil, Carkner) with few others dropping the gloves with any frequency. As well, this season is on pace to be the most scrap-filled year in nearly a decade for Ottawa, an interesting change of pace. Clearly, the team is in good hands (or, more appropriately, fists).