Half of the teams in the NHL have yet to hit the ice for their opening game of the 2010-11 season. Yet, we already have a strong candidate for Fight of the Year. In one of the great rivalries that remains in the parity-laced NHL, the Battle of Alberta brought it strong with a late third-period fight between Raitis Ivanans of the Calgary Flames and Steve MacIntyre of the Edmonton Oilers. Both players threw a few strong punches before MacIntyre sent Ivanans to the ice with a KO. Give Ivanans credit, he tried to give his team a spark as the Flames were getting trounced 4-0, but it sure did backfire on him. This game by the way, saw four scrums but this one sure did overshadow the other three. This was also a rematch of a fight the two had in the preseason last week. That fight was more of a draw as one player didn’t knock the other to the ice, but MacIntyre had more quality punches and made contact more often than Ivanans.
I think that Ivanans will probably refrain from trying to throw down with MacIntyre for the rest of the season.
Thanks goes out to HWB reader Bryan for giving me the heads up about the fight, and to Hockey Fights for getting the video up rather quickly.
Not really going to give your team much energy with only two and a half minutes to go in the 3rd.
It is not about energy, but when you are down 4-0, it is about sending a message. Unfortunately, that message was lost in translation when Ivanans hit the ice from the knockout punch.