Surely nobody could have seen this coming. Philadelphia Flyers winger Nick Deslauriers took down Toronto Maple Leafs winger Ryan Reaves in an early fight at the Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday night after neither team managed to gain any sort of momentum to start the game.
Deslauriers hopped over the Flyers‘ bench, Reaves hopped over the Maple Leafs’ bench, and after an awkward pause, they threw down the gloves and meandered to center ice to kick off the pleasantries.
Reaves actually held the early advantage in the tilt, forcing Deslauriers to use his weaker left hand and keeping him on the back foot. However, Deslauriers expertly paced himself, taking cover before tagging Reaves on the button with a perfectly-timed left.
With that, Deslauriers was able to grapple with his left hand and punch with his right, allowing him to tag Reaves a few more times before scoring the takedown and firing up the Wells Fargo Center crowd.
What a way to honor Wayne Simmonds after his retirement, huh?
This was Deslauriers’s fourth fight in the last month; he fought Maple Leafs defenseman Simon Benoit back on Feb. 15 in a Flyers overtime loss, and has since fought Matt Rempe, Kurtis MacDermid, and now Reaves.
Overall, Deslauriers has now been involved in a whopping 11 fights this season, emerging as the victor in most of those. As for Reaves, he also fought Rempe recently, but has only been involved in five fights this season, including this one. He missed extensive time with a knee injury earlier in the season.
Owen Tippett‘s 25th goal of the season, which was scored just 18 seconds into the game, had the Flyers up 1-0 at the time of the fight.
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