Kevin Westgarth - itching for his first scrap of the season?

Kevin Westgarth (photo: M. Zampelli)

You really have to hand it to Paul Bissonnette of the Phoenix Coyotes. He's taken a fourth line, limited minutes role and turned into something special.

He's a guy who's scored four goals in 108 NHL games. Yet, he picked up more votes than captain Shane Doan for last year's All Star game.

Call it the power of twitter. He has over 150,000 followers - that's two to three times more than most teams have! And, in large part, it's due to his comedic tweets. On the ice, it's a different story. He's usually getting noticed for his fists, not his quick wit.

However, last season, he stopped by MayorsManor and dropped a few bombs in a rather short interview - where he alleged Kyle Clifford was a cheap shot artist and turned him down when he asked for a fight (link).

With the possibility of Kevin Westgarth and Bissonnette finding each other on the ice tonight, I had a few questions for Westy after practice yesterday...

MM: BizNasty has built quite a following on twitter and you're still a newbie in that department. Do you have any pre-game tweets planned to heat things up a little?

KW: Oh, twitter...no. Not just yet. I'll hold off. I like to do my talking on the ice, not with my mouth. That's kind of the way I go about it. I feel like twitter is definitely great for the fans and I give him credit for what he's built for himself (there). But, I'll leave (the tweets) up to BizNasty.

MM: Last year, in the early part of the season you repeatedly talked about how you were 'just itching' to get that first scrap under your belt. Is it the same feeling this year?

KW: I think last year there was some discomfort, or adjustments I guess, knowing my role and knowing what I'm here to do and what I enjoy doing - the way that I want to take care of these guys and show intimidation to the other team. At least that's a little better known this year. So, I don't quite have the...well, as soon as it happens, I'm going to be more excited, or at least as excited, to get going and get in a good scrap here. But, it was just adjusting and wanting to get that first season out of the way and show what I could do for the LA Kings fans and my teammates. Hopefully, they now know what I can do and I look forward to keep doing it.

I'll have some comments from coach Terry Murray about Westgarth posted a little later.

The Mayor
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