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?

LA vs Phoenix Preview w/ Coyotes Tyson Nash

Nash in the locker room (Japan 2007)

From Theo Fleury to Sean Avery, the pest is a role some play to perfection.

Tyson Nash was one of those guys during his playing days with the St. Louis Blues and Phoenix Coyotes.

The self-proclaimed "former 4th line pigeon" is now the Coyotes' TV Color Analyst and he stopped by MayorsManor to help us preview tonight's game with the Kings.

In the interview below we talk former King Eric Belanger, a recent trade, his apology to Fleury, being compared to Avery, why the Kings will win the Pacific Division...and yes, we play word association.

MM: What's the biggest difference between what Dave Tippett is doing with the Coyotes this year compared to his first season in Phoenix last year?

TN: Obviously, with the players we have you have to coach a certain way. We don't have the high talent that maybe the LA Kings have. So, he puts a system in place that fits for this type of team and that's a defensive type of system. It's no different than last year really. It's a team that relies on their goaltender heavily and they play with a lot of structure, keep everything really tight and play that real suffocating style that seems to be very effective.

MM: Besides the 27 points, what has adding Eric Belanger meant to the team this season?

Clifford and Westgarth Preparing to Get (Biz) Nasty?

With the Phoenix Coyotes in town tonight to take on the Kings it's worth re-setting a story from the last time these two teams got together.

If you're not on twitter, you many not even know that one of the most popular hockey players in North America has scored only one goal in 37 games this season.

He's played in less than 100 NHL games and averages fewer than five minutes a night for the Coyotes, yet he had more All Star Game votes this year than Shane Doan, Justin Williams and Dustin Brown.

Paul Bissonnette, better known as BizNasty2point0, is all the rage right now. He talks plenty of puck, but also tweets non-hockey takes like "4Loco is Charlie Sheen in a can. Of course its back."

He even pokes fun at himself with tweets like "In case you folks are wondering I have a no movement clause, but its from the middle of the bench."

Prior to the Kings-Coyotes home-and-home series in late January BizNasty and I did the first ever MayorsManor twinterview.

His key comments had to do with Kevin Westgarth and Kyle Clifford, who then provided their responses as well. Take a look...

MM: The Kings have three scrappers right now (Westgarth, Clifford and Wayne Simmonds). You've faced off with Westgarth twice, including once in the AHL, and Clifford during the pre-season. What are your thoughts on those guys?

Kyle Clifford and Kevin Westgarth Respond to Biz Nasty

In an era when so many professional athletes are very buttoned up and often provide cliche answers to questions, some find a way to break out of the pack.

Paul Bissonnette of the Phoenix Coyotes is one of the latter. As noted yesterday, even though he's played less than 100 games in the NHL, his huge following on twitter recently helped him garner more NHL All Star votes this year than some of the top up and coming forwards in the game.

Prior to the Kings-Coyotes match-up yesterday BizNasty - as he's known to his fans - stopped by MayorsManor for a quick interview.  The highlight (or lowlight?) of the interview was him saying this about Kings' forward Kyle Clifford - "(He) jumped me in pre-season. Then, I asked him to fight last game like a man, (he) wouldn't."

The video doesn't exactly support his case from the first incident. However, after practice today I wanted to see what Clifford and Kevin Westgarth had to say about things...

LA vs Phoenix Preview - TwInterview with Biz Nasty

In hockey circles you have your black aces, plumbers, pipefitters, fillers, bridges and so on.

There's also a whole different type of role player. This guy has played in less than 100 NHL career games, has scored three goals total over three seasons and averages only five minutes of ice time a night for the Phoenix Coyotes.

Yet, he had more All Star Game votes this year than Matt Duchene (Colorado), John Tavares (NY Islanders) and Dustin Brown.

If Howard Stern is the King of All Media, then Paul Bissonnette is certainly the Champ of Twitter (sorry Ashton Kutcher, you lose).

Tweeps know all about @BizNasty2point0. However, if you're not connected to the twitterverse yet, you're missing his takes on PT Cruisers, homeless people, hot girls, scrabble games with teammates, attempted translations of Ilya Bryzgalov quotes and shopping tips like this one - "Just bought the beats by Dr. Dre Pro. These things make William Hung sound like Pavarotti." Followed by "These headphones are like the shake weight on crack."

As the master of 140 word or less quotes, it was only right that the first ever MayorsManor twinterview was with Biz Nasty himself.

Here are a few thoughts he shared with me prior to tonight's game...

MM: You've introduced the masses to many words on twitter - i.e. twigs (hockey sticks), apples (assists) and twooping (you don't want to know!). What word have you used that confused people most?

PB: None, cause I'll usually explain them via twitter.

MM: You recently noted you have a new roommate on the road (Chris Summers). Why the change and what do you think about it so far?

PB: Because (David) Schlemko is out with a conci (concussion) and not on the road. So I have the call up.

MM: How are things going with the new clothing line and what are some future plans?

PB: Sauce Hockey is expanding. We have some (more) stuff coming out soon.

[note: If you're thinking those are pretty bland answers and were hoping for something good, hang on...he's about to bring the heat...]
MM: The Kings have three scrappers right now (Kevin Westgarth, Kyle Clifford and Wayne Simmonds). You've faced off with Westgarth twice, including once in the AHL, and Clifford during the pre-season.  What are your thoughts on those guys?

PB: Clifford jumped me in pre season, then I asked him to fight last game like a man, (he) wouldn't. Standard. Heard he jumped guys in junior a lot. As for Westgarth, tough customer. Clifford is tough too, he will get stronger too, and he can play.

There was supposed to be a fifth question about his playing time in juniors (Owen Sound0 with the Kings' Brad Richardson and Ducks' Bobby Ryan. I haven't heard back on that one. Technical difficulties I guess. So, we'll save that for a different day.

Tonight the Kings and Coyotes will meet for the third time this season. Perhaps Bissonnette will get that rematch with Clifford he's been looking for.

If we're lucky, he'll even tweet about it after the game.

The Mayor
www.twitter.com/MayorNHL  
www.facebook.com/MayorsManor



RELATED ARTICLES:

Interview with Eric Belanger - Game Preview prior to the last LA-PHX game

Interview with Cam Janssen of STL Blues - he comments on Kings and Biz Nasty

Interview with Bobby Ryan - talks about his friendship with Kings' players

Clifford and Westgarth respond to Biz Nasty Twinterview

.

Cam Janssen's Five Minute Major Preview: LA v StL

Cam Janssen is in his sixth NHL season, the last four with the St. Louis Blues. He's posted only two goals while racking up 589 penalty minutes in 219 games. It's what you call 'knowing your role.'

In the interview below he helps us preview tonight's Kings - Blues game. We talk about LA's tough guys, playing for his hometown team, scouting NHL enforcers, BizNasty's tweets, Keith Tkachuk's retirement, adding Jaroslav Halak...and he even gives a prediction for the game.

MM: Although the Blues didn't make the playoffs last year and the Kings did, you guys took the season series from LA 3-1. Tonight will be the first match-up this season. What will be the keys to the game?

CJ: They're a good young, skilled team. They're playing good solid hockey right now and they're one of the best teams in the Western Conference. We have a lot of injuries right now. So, we have to come out and immediately get our feet going on our forecheck.  Also, the first five strikes back are so key for us. Catching up with an odd man rush or what could be an odd man rush is important, knowing that we don't have the skill or power we're used to because of our injuries. So, we need to be effective with our details - that's skating hard, being in the right position and back checking with a purpose. The Kings offense is good. So, if we don't do that, they're going to take advantage of us.

Over the summer there were a few significant changes to the Blues' line-up. What were your first thoughts when you heard goaltender Jaroslav Halak was coming to St. Louis?

Post Practice Comments - Kevin Westgarth

Earlier today I posted comments from Michal Handzus and Jarret Stoll following the Kings practice this morning in El Segundo.

Next up is Kevin Westgarth...

MM: Let's get to the elephant in the room first. Everybody wants to know, we're four games in and no scraps yet - what's going on out there?

KW: There's no takers, it's tough sometimes. Especially, when you get down - guys don't want to risk losing a fight to lose momentum for their team. I'm itching a bit, for sure. It's all kinda part of the game, part of the line I have to walk anyway. You know, being a smart hockey player combined with being the guy that wants to show the fans, especially, that he's willing to get out there and scrap if he has to. The moments haven't really presented themselves. I'm trying to create 'em. But, I feel like our guys are still protected and that's the most important thing. Nobody has done anything too stupid or too crazy, so I haven't had to get over the line just yet. I have no fear that it will be coming!

Looks like the itch will have to wait at least another game, coach said you wont be playing against Carolina.  What were your thoughts when you heard the news?