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.”

Source

 

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For the second time in two years, it’s a 4-0 win style win for the Rangers. Granted, the last time was 4 games over the Thrashers in the playoffs, but still it feels nice.  Jon and I scored some seriously good seats for half their face value. It was great. Close to the rink, and we had space on both sides of us. Couldn’t ask for much better at $35 a ticket!  We got to see a fight, short it was, but a fight nonetheless. We saw some receive a game misconduct, which is a game ejection (current game suspension) imposed by the referees. And we saw a shutout by the Rangers. Whether this type of play continues from the Rangers remains to be seen… but, being a Ranger fan, you get used to the inconsistency.

Tonight. Stoked. I got the tickets more than half off. So much for watching the game at home tonight!