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It’s been too long since a Philadelphia Flyers game featured some solid bouts. As we are occupied thinking about Matvei Michkov getting healthy scratched, goaltenders dropping like flies and looking not great, and the downfall of multiple young forwards; the Flyers have not been giving us the strong performances with dropped gloves.
Maybe it’s just loving so many facepunchers on the ice while growing up, but there is truly nothing like having a memorable hockey fight. Sure, we have had some fair bouts through this Flyers season already, but nothing that really stuck to the ribs. Hell, Joel Farabee and Sean Couturier are two members of the Flyers that dropped the gloves this season so far, so the bar is very low for some significant fights.
That was until Monday night against the San Jose Sharks. The big boys came out to play in what was eventually a 4-3 shootout win over the visitors.
The game started off with a bang. In just the first couple of minutes, Erik Johnson of all players scored a goal off the rush and we were ecstatic to see the Flyers put their stamp on a game almost immediately with a very nice goal. And as Johnson was riding high after scoring a tally in his 998th career NHL game, he decided to get in a tussle with the willing Givani Smith after the Sharks forward was trying to pick and pry at Matvei Michkov.
Johnson was having none of it. No no-name player was going to mess with his star rookie and he went right after Smith.
Erik Johnson scores a goal and then drops the gloves with Givani Smith for messing with Matvei Michkov 👀🔥 pic.twitter.com/W6vqUUl74I
The fight didn’t feature a whole lot of actual punches connecting. Johnson was fine with Smith going at him with attempted jabs and the Flyers defenseman was playing defense, but after a couple large attempts at some hooks, the two went twirling around on the ice in circles that made the whole thing feel a little silly, before they tumbled to the ice.
With a dominant force on either side of the whistles, the Flyers were clearly feeling good. Soon after, just about halfway through the game, they found themselves up 3-0 thanks to some goals from Travis Konecny and Matvei Michkov. Their stars were showing up and putting in some strong performances at home.
So when after a scrum, Barclay Goodrow was jawing at Nick Seeler, of course the Flyers defenseman charged at the player like a rabid animal — throwing down his gloves in the process and putting in the work for one of the most entertaining fights we have had in a while.
Goodrow and Seeler drop the gloves 🥊 pic.twitter.com/HDDs8pasAv
While Johnson had the energy of a lumbering heavyweight just waiting for the opportunity to land a finishing blow, Seeler came out with the fighting spirit of a million pitbulls charging. There was nothing Goodrow could do but try to hold off a man that would probably need to be taken down by dozens of men to stop fighting.
No defense. All offense.
And maybe the best thing about this fight is that it just simmered down. Sure, we love a big judo throw to the ice, but it’s certainly terrible when the two players just slowly melt down to being parallel to the ground. This one just quickly sizzled out by the bench; the two exerting all of their energy committing to messing up the features of the other dude’s face and then just nodding after they knew they were done and the officials separated them.
It wasn’t the best fight we’ve ever seen from Seeler — that was maybe him taking on the gargantuan Jamie Oleksiak in the Kraken’s first visit to Philadelphia, in our opinion — but he just attacks players like no one else. Rushing around in between whistles and knowing that that is his role on this team.
Maybe we’ll see more of that as the season goes on, but we certainly got a healthy helping of some fighting spirit on Monday night.
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