Fights Friday: Clean hit, fight anyway, and cancer always fights dirty

Week five has come and gone in the world of HockeyFights.com. This week has had ten fights added to the list of a total 57 bouts this season. The quality of fights index has not been very high. Quite a few quick fights this week. The referees have stepped in a couple of times and some instances that would have been fights were instead called roughing minors.

In this installment we see an instigator go wrong, a long bout and say a heart $%&# yourself cancer.

Show me the tilts.

MacDermid is a big boy. He throws a clean hit on a guy caught admiring his clear in. McLeod and his three other fights this year rushed into the defense of his guy. MacDermid looked like he didn’t want to really have to do this, but Cody was taking that instigator and MacDermid gave him reason to head back to the locker room anyways.

In what was easily the chippiest affair of the week, the Kings and the Ducks showed why their rivalry may still be the most heated in the league. These two teams don’t like each other. Andreoff and Boll finally hit the boiling point and the two went for it.

A fight that lasted almost a minute in my mind will always be one of the tops of the week. This one started in a way that could not only describe the fight, but also Lucic’s skating now, slow and lumbering. It looked like it may be a hugging affair until Milan got the arm loose again and the fists, they were a-flying.

Some people think the Capitals and Penguins only started to love each other when the Crosby / Ovechkin rivalry was built, some like me are old enough to remember the 1996 playoffs. These two teams hated each other. The fight was nasty, so bad that Kerry Fraser got involved. The coaches were jarring with each other. So much so that the Caps coach got kicked out.

Just good old time hockey.

This is where we normally feature the one fight that probably deserved two minutes for occurring, rather than a major.

This week it’s a little different.

We have all dealt with this monster of a disease. It’s hockey fights cancer month in the NHL. This year alone we have lost Dave Semenko, one of the toughest sons of a gun that ever did live.

Brian Boyle is playing through the fight with a type of leukemia that was discovered during training camp. And then just this past week we learned that former NHL referee Kerry Fraser is fighting his own battle.

Cancer fights dirty. Cancer wins way too many times and takes down some of the strongest people we know.

So I would like to take some time to wish the best of luck to everyone in this fight. You’re never alone. You’re so inspirational and so strong. We’re all behind you.

If you want to see all the fights from the week, and indeed the season, you have only to visit us over at HockeyFights.com

So that’s the fights that were the fights. What say you citizens of the Nation? Did you like my picks? Did I miss a fight you thought was better or worse? Do you have a suggestion for the classic fight you want to see next week? Hit me up on twitter @TheNationDan or send it in the comments below.

Square up and protect your head.