Seemed like fighting was up everywhere even though divisional games were down. I dont know if we see as much pure team hatred consistently as we did in the past, but contention is there in a broad sense everywhere. Here's a few teams that were fond of dropping the gloves with one another.
Nominees
Philadelphia Flyers - New Jersey Devils
These two division rivals hooked up for a lead-leading 11 fights in their 6 Atlantic Division matches.
Riley Cote had his hands full with
Michael Rupp and the Devils calling up Pierre-Luc Leblond.
David Clarkson fought the left-overs, including
Andrew Alberts twice. Back-to-back games in late October led to six fights, including the Devils icing a ridiculous lineup that included Rupp, Clarkson, Leblond, and Brookbank.
Montreal Canadiens - Boston Bruins
Another rivalry that still looked and felt old-school was the ever-contentious Montreal-Boston grudge matches. The highlight was seeing
Milan Lucic battle with Mike Komisarek but the teams had 6 regular season fights and added another 2 in their first round playoff series. There were mini-brawls and dirty play abounding, especially as the teams headed into the stretch run and the emotions were heightened.
Anaheim Ducks - Vancouver Canucks
Two of the toughest lineups in the West hooked up for four fun games in 08-09 that featured six fights and plenty of rough play.
George Parros and
Darcy Hordichuk were the higlights, as they christened three of the four games by dropping the gloves.
Mike Brown was also active, fighting on both sides of the rivalry before and after being claimed by the Ducks mid-season.
St. Louis Blues - Chicago Blackhawks
It seemed like the old Norris division days when these two scrappy lineups battered one another in six hard-fought games. The highlight was a November 14th game in which there were four fights in the first period, all within 4 minutes of one another as there were stoppage after stoppage for fights. Overall the teams piled up 9 fighting majors in their season series.
Edmonton Oilers - Vancouver Canucks
The wide open games of the Northwest were best on display between the Oilers and Canucks, two of the top fighting teams in the league. They also combined for 9 fights in their 6 divisional games. The series started with a bang as a massive
Steve MacIntyre hit on
Mattias Ohlund led to a quick beating of
Rob Davison.
Mike Brown, Dave Hordichuk and Zach Stortini led the mid-season attack while
Rick Rypien provided an infusion of punching power at the end of the season. Rypien-Stortini ended the series with a great toe-to-toe fight.
My Pick
Maybe the playoff series tips the scale but I was a big fan of the Bruins-Canadiens matchup. The fights were meaningful and angry, Lucic-Komisarek was great, and there were plenty of scrums throughout the series. This is a series I'd watch any day just as a fan of physical hockey.
Previous Winners
2003-04:
New York Rangers –
New York Islanders
2005-06:
Calgary Flames –
Vancouver Canucks
2006-07:
Buffalo Sabres --
Ottawa Senators
2007-08:
Pittsburgh Penguins --
Philadelphia Flyers