Friday Fights: A week of firsts

Our 11th Friday fights in the weekly series is upon us. This week, we had 10 more fights this week brings our season total up to 115 scraps on the year but we’re sitting at well below 300 fights for the first time in the expansion era.

This week Pittsburgh and Foligno made some waves, two rookies had their first NHL fight, and a trend rears its ugly head.

Show me the tilts.

Two guys in their first fight of their young careers. Welcome to the show boys. McAvoy lays a nice hit and Dubois takes issue with it. Both guys went toe to toe with McAvoy getting the nod from the hockey fights voters. McAvoy would go on to finish off the Gordie Howe hat trick on this night as well for another first in his career.

Are there two more polarizing figures in the hockey world than Foligno and the Pittsburgh? Well, ok Kesler, you’re still up there. But the comments sections erupted when I posted that solid forearm shiver from Malkin, and subsequent beat down by Foligno. Malkin was getting hounded all over the ice of this shift and this is what happens when the big Russian star has enough.

As per tradition, in Gary Bettman’s NHL, a big clean hit leads to the hitter having to answer the bell with another of “hitee’s” teammates. Another trend is that player like Bogosian in this case, seem to end up losing more often than not. Miller acknowledges the request for a fight from across the neutral zone and just proceeds to beat up Bogosian.

Make sure you follow along on all of Hockey Fights’ social media platforms as I will have a top 5 fights of year coming this week for your viewing pleasure.

This is where we normally feature the one fight that probably deserved two minutes for occurring, rather than a major. Or a player that needs to be put on blast.

For two veterans of the game (Leo being in the KHL for a few years), there is really a lot of easier ways to get five minutes off than hugging it out and wrestling for the takedown.

Ask the coach, fake an injury, just walk down the tunnel. Literally, any of those would be an improvement over the “fight” that we were forced to watch here.

Wag that finger.

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.