If I hadn’t seen Sean Avery and Marek Malik throwing punches at one another during practice today, I wouldn’t have believed it.

But what had been a mere one-on-one battle during drills today quickly escalated into shoves and then an all-out fight between the 6-foot-6 Malik and the 5-10 Avery, lasting maybe 30 seconds before it eventually ended. For those scoring at home, we’ll call it Malik by TKO.

Words were exchanged after that. At one point, Avery could be heard saying, “What are you,a tough guy? Why don’t you play like that in a game?”

In the awkward aftermath, Tom Renney skated over to Malik and said, “Good job, big guy,” and it seemed like a number of observers were impressed with how Malik more than held his ground against Avery.

The practice continued without incident after that, with Avery and Malik even taking part in the same in-zone drills. Afterwards, the prevailing theme throughout the dressing was it was the sort of intense display the team needed after such a listless showing against L.A.

“Things happen,” Malik said. “There’s nothing between us. That’s hockey. It’s a contact sport. Even if it’s practice, you want to play hard. If somebody doesn’t feel like he’s been hit right, he might step up. It happens. It’s not the first time or the last time it’s going to happen.”

“You guys gotta love it,” Martin Straka joked. “Thank God it wasn’t me. I’d have another black eye.”

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