ST. PAUL, Minn. – After Robert Bortuzzo’s two-fight night Thursday against Minnesota, Blues coach Craig Berube was asked if he had any such games during his playing career.
“Quite a few,” Berube replied.
He wasn’t kidding.
In a career that spanned 17 seasons and 1,054 regular-season games from 1986-2003, Berube had 22 games in which he was involved in two fights, per hockeyfights.com. He never fought three times in a game.
Among the combatants in those 22 games were former Blues Kelly Chase, Scott Stevens and Brendan Shanahan, all playing for teams other than the Blues at the time.
On five occasions for Berube, both fights took place in the same period.
On six occasions, he fought the same player in both fights.
Berube fought a lot – 241 times over his NHL career for Philadelphia, Washington, Calgary, Toronto and the New York Islanders.
While playing for Philadelphia, Berube fought Bob Probert in the first period and Joey Kocur in the second in a March 28, 1987 game against visiting Detroit.
Four days later in Detroit, he fought Probert in the first period and then Probert again in the second period.
But it was a different era. Berube once had 24 fights in a season (1990-91) for Philadelphia, a year in which he piled up 293 penalty minutes.
Bortuzzo has had 27 fights in his 10-year NHL career – 15 with Pittsburgh, 12 with St. Louis.
Thursday night, he got into it with Jordan Greenway, who’s tight end-sized at 6-6, 241, after Greenway slammed him into the St. Louis net 14 ½ minutes into the game.
Then he fought Marcus Foligno, no toothpick either at 6-3, 223, after Foligno buried Jordan Kyrou with a hit in front of the St. Louis net 6 ½ minutes into the second period.
In addition to five minutes for fighting, Bortuzzo (6-4, 216) also received a two-minute instigator penalty and 10-minute misconduct for his fight with Foligno.
So he was penalized a career-high 22 minutes in the Blues’ 5-4 overtime victory at Xcel Energy Center. That’s one minute more than Bortuzzo’s entire penalty total last season, when he played 42 games.
He’s been in double figures in penalty minutes in five other games during his NHL career; his previous career high was 17 minutes playing for St. Louis in an April 2, 2015 game against Calgary.
Bortuzzo has fought Foligno once before, way back on Nov. 23, 2015 when Foligno was playing for Buffalo. (He fought Foligno’s brother Nick two season earlier.)
And yes, Bortuzzo has had a two-fight game previously – but only one. As a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins, he fought New Jersey’s Jordin Tootoo twice on Dec. 29, 2014, with both scraps coming in the second period.
