We’re only in the third month of the 2010-11 season, yet we’ve seen a full campaign’s worth of unexpected fights. From Pavel Datsyuk expressing his distaste for the Anaheim Ducks with his fists to Sidney Crosby’s semi-comical scrap with Matt Niskanen and Mike Green getting into a skirmish, unlikely parties have become pugilists.
It’s now time to add Washington Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin to that list.
Who knows if it was because of self defense or simply to rile up his bench (the Caps were down 4-0, now 7-0), but Ovechkin got into a short but spirited squabble with New York Rangers center Brandon Dubinsky. Dubinsky probably took exception to Ovechkin’s hip check on Daniel Girardi, which happened just a few moments before the two scorers decided to drop the gloves.
Ovechkin doesn’t throw knuckles very often, though. In fact, it’s been more than four years since his last fight; he last scrapped with Paul Gaustad on December 2, 2006. Hockey Fights.com fans voted Ovechkin the loser in both bouts, giving Dubinsky more than 70 percent of the votes in this one.
Check out the fight video in all of its “Capitals fans holding their breath that he doesn’t injure his hands” glory below.
[vodpod id=Video.5111645&w=425&h=350&fv=catid%3D35%26amp%3Bid%3D87189%26amp%3Bserver%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fvideo.nhl.com%2Fvideocenter%2F%26amp%3Bpageurl%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fvideo.nhl.com%2Fvideocenter%2F%26amp%3Bnlwa%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fapp2.neulion.com%2Fvideocenter%2Fnhl%2F]