Derek Dorsett and Chris Neil traded blows early in the second period of Ottawa’s 4-3 overtime victory against Vancouver. Dorsett wasn’t pleased with Neil’s actions towards the end of the fight as the Senators forward continued to throw punches while Dorsett was falling to the ice.
“I’ve talked to many guys around the league and they say he’s stupid and just proves it tonight,” Dorsett said, per Sportsnet’s Dan Murphy. “Guy has been playing in the league over 10 years, has well over a thousand penalty minutes and you’d think he’d have a little bit of class.
“First period he asked me to fight and I tell him no I have a bad hand. He keeps coming after me and coming after me and finally I fight him. Pretty even fight and I fall down and he gets two punches in. The refs in there and it’s just uncalled for. Then he gives it the junior move and starts waving on their fans it’s just Chris Neil in a nutshell.”
Neil is certainly no stranger to controversy. The 35-year-old with 2,265 penalty minutes in 882 contests got into a war of words with Johan Franzen in February when the Red Wings forward accused Neil of trying to step up when games are essentially over to avoid taking “heat from fans and coaches.” In response to Neil trying to pick a fight with him late in the third period of a 6-1 victory. Neil fired back by saying he’s willing to fight Franzen at any time.
“He wants to drop his purse, take the lipstick out, put it on his lips and ‘Let’s go,’” Neil said. He also called Franzen “gutless.”
As for Sunday’s incident, Neil and Dorsett were both given fighting majors and 10-minute misconducts. You can see what happened below: