Jarkko Ruutu knees Ilya Kovalchuk, then fights Steve McCarthy

On January 30th, in the Penguins-Thrashers game, Thrashers' All-Star Ilya Kovalchuk was kneed by Penguins' agitator Jarkko Ruutu and then Thrashers' defenseman Steve McCarthy went after him and tried to pound the ducking away Ruutu. Hopefully Kovalchuk isn't out for a long time.

Quotes:

McCarthy said: "First of all, Ruutu's running at your best player, whether it was a clean hit or not, and it wasn't," McCarthy said. "It hits knee on knee, hurts one of our best players, and that can't happen."

And did you think it was a cheap shot? Yeah, I did," McCarthy said.

Ruutu disagreed. "I barely hit him. I didn't change direction. I just went for a hit," Ruutu told reporters. "I got five minutes for fighting, and I didn't even throw a punch."

Watch the video of this hit and fight below.