Prust isn't angry about Staal sucker punch

Brandon Prust has proven, time and again, that he's willing to fight whenever and wherever - maybe sometimes too willing, given that his role as a checking winger alongside Brian Boyle has meant increased ice time and responsibility this season.

So Prust doesn't see that the rise in incidents of sucker-punching - defined here as a player delivering a punch to another player whose gloves and stick are still in hand - necessarily means that honor in hockey is on the wane.

"Maybe it's just one of those things that goes in cycles," he said. "There's a lot of intensity out there right now, and a lot of attention being paid to head shots and things like that."

The Penguins' Jordan Staal clocked Prust on Tuesday with a sucker punch - a few talking heads in Pittsburgh would have fans believe that it wasn't a penalty that deserved ejection or that Prust, who went down hard and missed the rest of the second period, was embellishing - and that was the fourth incident so far this season.

The Thrashers' Ben Eager got a four-game ban for punching the Leafs' Colby Armstrong; former Rangers enforcer Jody Shelley, normally an honorable fighter, got a one-game ban for sucker-punching Carolina's Andrew Alberts.

Staal avoided a suspension, given his relatively clean history. He also apologized in an indirect way to Prust, via Staal's brother Marc.

"He texted Marc and said something like, 'I'm sure he's fine. I can't hit that hard,'" Prust said. "It's a heat of the moment thing. I know he's not known for that kind of stuff."

The Rangers and Penguins meet again at the Garden on Sunday.

Rangers still shopping

Blue Jackets a fit?

About six weeks ago, reports emerged that Rangers GM Glen Sather had chatted with Blue Jackets GM Scott Howson about Fedor Tyutin, the former Rangers defenseman.

Howson inquired about Rangers defenseman Michael Del Zotto. That was that. But the two GMs are still in contact, according to sources, and while Columbus is actively shopping defenseman Rostislav Klesla, Tyutin is not believed to be at the top of the Jackets' list of assets they want to ship out.

The Rangers, it's believed, would love to have Tyutin back. Sather dealt him for Nik Zherdev two summers ago; that was a bust, after Zherdev's one shaky season in New York and Tyutin's continued steady play in Columbus.

Tyutin has one year at a $2.875-million cap hit remaining, which would fit in well with the Rangers' cap situation.

They won't be parting with Del Zotto, though, despite his struggles.

So the search may continue for a good trade fit with three weeks left until the deadline.

Goalie fights are rare

It wasn't always the case that goalies avoided fighting. Just as nearly every NHL player in the 1970s had to be ready to fight, that occasionally included the goaltenders. Billy Smith led the way, fighting not just other goalies but almost anyone who came within hacking distance of the crease.

The Brent Johnson-Rick DiPietro fight on Wednesday will live on thanks to DiPietro's facial fractures from the one-punch knockout, but also because it was the first goalie vs. goalie fight since Feb. 21, 2007, when the Senators' Ray Emery and Marty Biron, then with the Sabres, went for a long tussle.

"That was the game when [Ottawa's] Chris Neil knocked Chris [Drury] out with a bad hit, and we'd had a ton of injuries already," Biron said. "So I was already getting my glove untied the next shift, I knew something was going to happen.

"I knew Emery was a tough guy, but I didn't think I did too bad. He didn't get me in the face. He got me once in the back of my head. I still had a bump there about a week later."

Top five goalie PIMs

The top five penalty-minute totals for NHL goaltenders.

1. Ron Hextall, 1986-99 -- 584 PIM, 296 wins

2. Billy Smith, 1971-89 -- 489 PIM, 305 wins, 4 Stanley Cups

3. Tom Barrasso, 1983-2003 -- 437 PIM, 369 wins, 2 Cups

4. Ed Belfour, 1988-2007 -- 380 PIM, 484 wins, 1 Cup

5. Sean Burke, 1987-2007 -- 310 PIM, 324 wins