[ThePundit]

Gotta love it...Hockey is back...Simon and Holliweg go at it 3 times. DiPietro pummels Al Montoya....

...Hockey was secondary to the grudge both teams have been nursing since the Islanders' Chris Simon used his stick to belt the Rangers' Ryan Hollweg in the mouth last March 8.

Simon received a 25-game suspension for that vicious act, a sentence that has another five games to run when the season starts. But thanks to the vagaries of NHL law, Simon is allowed to play preseason games. So hostilities were renewed as soon as Islanders defenseman Andy Sutton dropped Ryan Callahan with a forearm shiver 51 seconds into Monday night's game at Nassau Coliseum.

Eight of the nine goals in the Isles' 5-4 victory were scored on the power play, including Mike Comrie's winner with 1:58 left in overtime, but the score really was incidental to hitting and fighting. Simon and Hollweg went at it three times before both were tossed out in a second-period brawl that resulted in six ejections, including Isles goal.tender Rick DiPietro and his Rangers counterpart Al Montoya.

The prelims began early in the first when three pairs of Rangers and Islanders scuffled in a span of 33 seconds, including Simon and Hollweg. Early in the .second, Hollweg again ran at Simon, leading to a tussle, and the Rangers' Colton Orr jumped in and was called for high-sticking. .

Then, the real fun started. Half the Isles' defense -- Sutton, Bryan Berard and Aaron Johnson -- were in the box for infractions when Chris Drury and Blair Betts scored power-play goals for a 2-1 Rangers' lead. Then, both teams lost it.

Hollweg blasted Islanders defenseman Radek Martinek from behind, and Simon responded by smearing Hollweg, prompting their third fight. Jason Strudwick jumped on Simon's back as the Isles' enforcer peppered Hollweg with head shots. DiPietro, who fought former teammate Arron Asham in practice last season, then leaped on Strudwick and took him down to the ice.

When Montoya came out of his net, DiPietro instructed him to drop his gloves and take off his mask and then pulled Montoya down and pummeled him. "Any time you see a teammate fighting two guys, two good fighters, you've got to jump in and make sure he doesn't get hurt," DiPietro said of Simon, who left without talking to reporters. "It's good to see guys stand up for each other."

"It's a great rivalry," said Guerin, who got his first taste of it. "There was some bad blood from last year. Some things needed to get sorted out, and they did."

Isles, Rangers have fight night in Nassau -- Newsday.com