Fights Friday: Volume over quality

Week four of your weekly recap from hockeyfights.com. This week saw another eleven fights added to the list of a total 43 bouts this season. The quality of fights this week is quite low. Most fights registered under a “3” rating over on the hockey fights log. A lot of non-fighters getting their name on our list of fighting majors in this week of fights.

In this installment we will see some AHLers getting their time, and the Bruins and Columbus going to war.

Show me the tilts.

Two guys who have spent time in the AHL in the last two years working hard to earn their space in the NHL. The game, a chippy affair with the Stars coming out flat in this one. Smith looking to do what he could to get the game going. A spirited tilt between two tough guys you won’t be hearing the last of in the coming years.

The fight was a solid beating down of a player in Bjorkstrand who tried to take a liberty with the Bruins Krug. We had multiple posters from HF commenting on the big picture of the game:

So clearly, Miller had had enough here. The tweet above shows noted “level headed” play-by-play guy, Jack Edwards calling Oliver Bjorkstrand (noted Danish born player) a “Swedish meatball” which drew the ire of the Ohio faithful, and really speaks to slapshot’s point that this wasn’t the first frustrating run seen.

At age 40, I suspect this may be the final time you see Chara show up in our weekly recap of the fights. This makes it a career 66 total fights for the big Slovakian. Anderson got rocked here in a somewhat dirty hit (see number two on this list for the narrative from that game) and after collecting himself took on the 6’9 man on skates. Anderson seemed to tag Chara early in the fight and from there the man known as Big Z was trying to get out of dodge with his win. He used his hulking arms to control and take down his 6’3 opponent.

I went to clip this fight today for the instagram of hockeyfights and it was deemed too long. That’s absolutely wild. Two of the toughest guys in one of the most underrated rivalries in the game still. Love listening to the old calls of these games too. Hop over to the site and check out some of the reviews of this bout.

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

Now let’s leave that hit for now.. because that was unreal good. Keep your head up kid.

But I digress. Huge hit by Murphy. Taylor Leier will learn to keep his head up skating through the neutral zone from now on. However, when you blow up a 23 year old kid, you’re going to be called to answer the bell. Wayne Simmonds immdiately went over to talk to Murphy.. and Connor pretended not to hear him. It wasn’t until Scott Laughton (who gives up three inches to Murphy) came at him that Murphy finally dropped the gloves. The fight was over faster than the initial hit was made (with one landed punch).

Luckily, most will only remember the hit.

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.