Throwing Bows
You won’t see a better NHL fight all season than Jonah Gadjovich and Dennis Gilbert chucking knucks on Sunday
It feels like it’s been awhile since we saw a proper hockey tilt. For years the art form has waned, as calls for its removal from the game on the grounds of player safety, penalty-box analytics, and general decorum have grown. It has held on, as stubborn as the lumbering enforcers who still practice its dark arts, but with each passing year, their ranks dwindle.
That brings us to Sunday night, when, nearly two months after the NHLs season began, Jonah Gadjovich and Dennis Gilbert dropped the gloves to deliver its first great bout. Better late than never, fellas.
Holy haymakers, Batman. It takes a little while to really get going as the two big men size each other up and Gilbert sheds his elbow pad. Once it does, however, its prime Tyson-Douglas—an all-offense, no-defense slugfest with punches landing left, right, and center. The force of the blows eventually sends Gilbert’s helmet flying off, which turns the tide in Gadjovich’s favor. Soon after, Gadjovich finishes Gilbert with a nasty right hook to the eye socket, the closest thing you’ll see to a genuine KO on skates.
While Gadjovich got the victory on our scorecards, it was the night's only W for the Sharks, who fell to the visiting Flames 5-2.
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