Watch: truly 'old-school' hockey fight takes center stage in NHL
Normally, there wouldn’t be much to report about an NHL team firmly in the playoff hunt handily beating another team that will likely miss the postseason.
That’s exactly what happened on Sunday when the Minnesota Wild beat the struggling Detroit Red Wings 4-1. Yes, the Wild had lost their last two games by a combined score of 12-4, including one to the lowly Arizona Coyotes, but the narrative straightened itself out with a win against Detroit.
That being said, the pivotal moment that seemed to spark the Wild is the true story of the game.
Down 1-0 early and playing sluggishly, the Wild seemed to be staring at a third bad loss in a row. Then, with a little over 13 minutes remaining in the second period, the Wild found the inspiration they needed.
Now, fair or unfair, hockey players are generally accepted as the toughest athletes in North American sports. Watching them sustain an injury that would keep a basketball, football or baseball player sidelined for weeks, then shrug it off to continue playing is a sight to behold. In what other sport will you see an athlete get hit in the mouth, spit out his teeth like Chiclets and keep on playing like he mildly sprained his pinky finger?
Despite that rugged reputation, however, many hockey fights tend to be a little on the disappointing side, especially since the turn of the millennium. Players clumsily fall, there’s more posturing than fighting and a lot of the fights devolve into little more than jersey-tugging.
Detroit’s Luke Witkowski and Minnesota’s Nick Seeler on Sunday? That was a fight.
The melee was sparked when Witkowski went for a dangerous hit on Wild player Zach Parise’s knee. Seeler did not take kindly to the move, which could’ve seriously injured Parise.
There was no posturing or fake tough guy acting. Seeler and Witkowski instantly lost their gloves. Seeler didn’t even wait for Witkowski to lose his helmet.
The Wild scored the first of their four straight goals on the ensuing power play, and the record books will recognize the Wild as the comfortable winners of the game.
But for the Wild players, the fight was a much-needed boost amid their sluggish play.
“Guys were on the bench and they were saying, ‘We gotta go now,’” Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said after the game, per the Star Tribune. “‘If we can’t get motivated for this, then we’re in trouble.’”
“I just thought, you know what, good time to step up,” Seeler said. “We were down 1-0. I thought it was the right time.”
“I just think both teams were shocked,” Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk, who had 28 saves in the win, told the Twin Cities Pioneer Press. “I haven’t seen a fight like that in a long time. That was nuts.”
“I think I owe him a steak dinner after that scrap,” Parise said after Seeler stood up for him. “That was old-school. I had a front-row seat for it. The sounds that were coming out from that were nasty.”
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