Dec. 8 Providence (Please stand by...)

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- I thought it was funny…maybe not “ha, ha” funny, but, you never do know who you’ll see at a hockey game.
  Particularly one between two teams (in this case, the Portland Pirates and the Providence Bruins) that had pulverized each other (13 or was it 14 fights) in their last meeting, Nov. 25, up in Portland.
  Not that you expect to get more of the same. But the AHL office wasn’t taking any chances, as league Prexy Dave Andrews, and his right hand man, Jim Mill were both in attendance tonight, just in case.
  No need to go to the video tape.
  As it turned out, this was a lot tamer….just a dust up between Zenon Konopka and Jay Leach, and that coming after the two had staged a glaring match earlier in the second period.
  Then again, someone else I saw in the concourse between periods might have had a say in the matter.
  It was Doug Smith, the ex-cop who has served as an unofficial fighting consultant to the Bruins.
  He could take both teams to the woodshed if he had to.
  Fortunately, he didn’t have to.