It’s back! For the third consecutive year we’ll be running a weekly column ranking the five best hockey fights from the previous week. Our fight rankings are usually our most popular feature on PDL, so we’re pretty excited for them to return even though fighting in hockey continues to decline.
As always, you’re encouraged to sound off on our rankings and on the fights in the comments.
5. Barclay Goodrow (SJ) vs Andy Andreoff (LA) – Oct. 7th
Goodrow tried to defend his teammate, but he ended up being the focal point of a viscous beating from Andreoff. Goodrow was facing the wrong way for a significant portion of this fight, so it’s no wonder we’re chalking him up with a loss.
4. Ryan White (PHI) vs Shawn Thornton (FLA) – Oct. 10th
White desperately tried to get his team back into the game after jumping out to a 4-0 hole, but things didn’t go according to plan. Thornton makes this one look easy. There’s more dancing and positioning than actual fighting, but Thornton caught White with some big shots near the end.
3. Derek Dorsett (VAN) vs Micheal Ferland (CGY) – Oct. 7th
Talk about animosity as soon as the season begins. Dorsett and Ferland waste no time dropping their gloves as if they’ve been waiting to do so all summer. Ferland connected on more punches and fired up Flames fans before they even had a chance to settle into their seats.
2. Antoine Roussel (DAL) vs Cody McLeod (COL) – Oct. 10th
It wouldn’t be a Hockey Fights of the Week column without mentioning Roussel or McLeod, so it’s rather fitting they fought one another in the first week of 2015-16. McLeod throws almost all of the punches in this one and pops Roussel’s helmet off with one of his final blows. No need to debate the winner of this scrap.
1. Mike Brown (SJ) vs Kyle Clifford (LA) – Oct. 7th
One of the first fights of 2015-16 was also one of the best. LA jumped out to an early lead and this scrap occurred as a result. Brown and Clifford have previously fought in October of 2013 and 2014, so why not fight again in October of 2015? Clifford won this battle pretty decisively, but something tells us this won’t be the last time these two fight. Check back in October 2016.
Previous Installments
Look for previous weeks’ rankings to be posted here.
A big “thank you” to HockeyFights.com for making this column possible.