"Battle Of Florida" Hatred Runs Deep, Features A Few Preseason Brawls
Is this preseason hockey or a Worldstar video?
Nothing like preseason hockey, right folks?
It's a great time to see some new faces, check out what your team has in terms of depth, and just shake off the rust from the summer months.
For the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning, however, the preseason edition of their "Battle of Florida" was a chance for the two teams to continue their seething hatred for one another and beat the ever loving piss out of each other.
It started in the second period, when Panthers tough guy AJ Greer incited an all-out line brawl by taking a run at Lightning d-man Darren Raddysh.
While everyone else on the ice was holding steady with their partners, Greer and Raddysh were throwing absolute bombs towards each other.
Dear God! It's beautiful.
Not to be outdone, Panthers' fourth liner and clinical psychopath, Jonah Gadjovich, decided he wasn't done and proceeded to take Declan Carlile behind a woodshed.
It makes sense that Gadjovich would be at the center of multiple scrums against Tampa.
This is the same guy that was playing charades with the Edmonton Oilers with blood on his mouth after feeding his fists to a few different players throughout the Stanley Cup Finals.
What a madman!
All in all, the fights resulted in 64 penalty minutes.
I feel like I need to remind people this is preseason hockey.
The regular season doesn't start until next week, yet the Panthers and Lightning were chucking knucks like they were auditioning to be the main card at the next UFC event.
Imagine if this happened in the NBA?
Every player would be hiding behind security and their management team while they drafted up apologies on their notes apps.
If this is what the preseason has to offer, I can't wait until these two teams meet in the regular season.
The Battle of Florida has given us plenty of memorable matchups recently, as well as four of the last six Stanley Cup champions.
Hockey is almost back, ladies and gentlemen. The Bolts and Cats just got started a week earlier.