Each team has that one player who whose sole job is to make life miserable for his opponents and to protect his team’s stars. Whether you love to hate these kind of players they are necessary and most teams are happy to have a guy like that in their roster.
To begin, I will look at one player from each team of the Atlantic Division. Part One will only focus on the Montreal Canadiens, Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs and the Ottawa Senators. Part Two will cover the Buffalo Sabres, Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers and the Detroit Red Wings. The goal is to show who the physical leader is for each team, which guy mixes it up better and more often than anyone else on the team and to forecast if this season will be much of the same.
I will start off with the Boston Bruins. The Bruins best fighter is without a doubt #22 Shawn Thornton. During the 2012-2013 season alone he recorded eight regular season fights and two post-season fights. His first fight of the season was on January 19th, 2013 against the New York Rangers Mike Rupp. Just 10 days later Thornton recorded his second fight with Krys Barch of the New Jersey Devils. Next, he would take on John Scott from the Buffalo Sabres. Filling out Thornton’s fight card for 2013 were John Erskine from the Washington Capitals, Colton Orr from the Toronto Maple Leafs, Kevin Westgarth from the Carolina Hurricanes and Jay Rosehill from the Philadelphia Flyers. In the postseason, Thornton fought Mark Fraser from the Toronto Maple Leafs and Derek Dorsett from the New York Rangers.
Thornton has had many fights over his NHL years. In the 2009-2010 preseason he recorded two fights and during the regular season he recorded 21. He is usually always at the top of the NHL in regards to penalties from fighting. Next season I think he will be back at the top but I can also see Milan Lucic or Adam McQuaid climbing their way to a top fighting spot as well. Both Lucic and McQuaid failed to make the leader board of the penalty majors for fighting last season but only time will tell who will make it to the top, or if Thornton will remain a leader.
I was debating between several Montreal Canadiens players before deciding on #8 Brandon Prust. This past season he led the team on the fight card with ten regular season fights. On January 19, Prust took on Mike Brown from the Toronto Maple Leafs and just a few days laterhe went up against Matt Hendricks from the Washington Capitals. Prust would also match up against Chris Neil of the Senators followed by Steve Ott of the Buffalo Sabres. In both those games the opponents ended up with an unsportsmanlike penalty. From the February 9 to the April 13 Prust recorded six more fights. He went up against Mark Fraser from the Toronto Maple Leafs, Joe Finley from the New York Islanders, Zac Rinaldo from the Philadelphia Flyers, Patrick Kaleta from the Buffalo Sabres and Frazer McLaren from the Toronto Maple Leafs. One fight in particular that was of major importance was a matchup with Bruins forward Milan Lucic. The fight changed the momentum in the second period of the Bruins/Canadiens matchup and eventually led to a Montreal win.
Prust currently has three years left to serve on his contract. I think he will remain a top fighter for his team in the upcoming season. I also see George Parros, Travis Moen, and Ryan White being on the top of the fight card. Two of these three players would have to be careful since they are serving what could be their last year of their contracts. If they fight they have to choose their fights wisely so they can potentially sign a contract extension to remain on the team.
On the Ottawa Senators there was a tie between Chris Neil and Zack Smith, who both recorded six regular season fights and one post-season fight. I debated between the two but I decided to go with Neil. I chose him because he has nearly three times as many penalty minutes as any other Senator’s player. During the shortened season he fought B.J. Crombeen from the Tampa Bay Lightning. He also took on Montreal Canadiens top fighter Brandon Prust where Neil received a misconduct penalty.
Neil also took on Orr from the Toronto Maple Leafs, Robyn Regehr from the Buffalo Sabres, Tim Gleason from the Carolina Hurricanes and Milan Lucic from the Boston Bruins. In the postseason he recorded one fight with Travis Moen from the Montreal Canadiens on May 5. Each player received a game misconduct penalty.
Next season I can see Neil being at the top of the fighter list along with Zack Smith and Jared Cowen. Neil has always been known as a fighter. In previous seasons he has been known to get in 10-14 fights with other teams so it goes without a doubt that he will be close to the top. I do believe he will be on the top of the list but these other players will be close behind in points.
Final team for part one of the top fighters in the Atlantic Division goes to forward Colton Orr from the Toronto Maple Leafs. Orr leads the fight card of the 2012-2013 season with 13 fights. His first fight of the season was against Buffalo Sabres John Scott on January 21. His other fights included Deryk Engelland from the Pittsburgh Penguins, Mike Rupp from the New York Rangers, George Parros from the Florida Panthers and Chris Neil from the Ottawa Senators. Orr took on Chris Thorburn from the Winnipeg Jets on March 12 and 16. On March 21 he took on Partick Kaleta of the Buffalo Sabres. In this fight Orr received an instigator penalty, cross checking penalty, misconduct penalty and game misconduct penalty.
Finally, Orr took on Thorton from the Bruins, Kassian from the Senators, Rosehill from the Flyers and Boulton from the Islanders. After the season ended Orr signed a two year extension with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Next season I see him being on top of the fighting penaltie, along with having a good points total. I think he will be one of the players who will have the best of both worlds. I also think Frazer McLaren and Mark Fraser will have a long fight card for next season.
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