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Do Enforcers Still Exist in Hockey? Modern NHL Fight Roles

2026-05-17T20:03:06Z

If you’ve spent any time on Reddit or hockey Twitter lately, you’ve probably seen the question pop up: are enforcers still a thing in hockey? It’s usually asked by someone who just watched Matt Rempe try to dismantle a human being, or maybe someone who tuned out around 2011 and is just getting back into the sport. The short answer is yes. The long answer is yes, but they don’t look like Bob Probert anymore.

The game has changed, the rules have tightened, and the days of the three-minute-per-night heavyweight are over. But if you think the enforcer is extinct, you haven’t been paying attention to the 2025-26 season.

Drop the Gloves

The Extinction of the One-Dimensional Goon

Let’s get one thing straight. The traditional enforcer – the guy who played four minutes a night, couldn’t skate backward, and only existed to punch someone in the snot box – is dead. Gone. Finished.

The salary cap killed him. When every dollar matters, a general manager can’t waste a roster spot on a player who is a liability the second the puck drops. Back in the pre-cap days, teams could afford to carry a guy whose only job was to sit on the bench and wait for someone to take a run at the star center. That math doesn’t work anymore. Every roster spot has to justify its existence, and “I punch good” stopped being enough around 2012.

Rule changes didn’t help either. Don’t get me started.

The instigator rule, the helmet-off penalty, the visor mandate – they all conspired to make fighting more costly and more dangerous at the same time. And then there’s the CTE awareness. The tragic deaths of Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien, and Wade Belak in the summer of 2011 forced a reckoning that the hockey world couldn’t ignore. Three enforcers dead in four months. The league realized the human cost of the heavyweight lifestyle, and teams stopped drafting pure fighters. Parents stopped pushing their kids into the role. The pipeline dried up.

We wrote about this shift back in 2022 when we talked about the future of the hockey enforcer. At the time, we weren’t sure what was coming next. Turns out, the answer was staring us in the face.

The Modern Enforcer: Skill Meets Fist

Fighting isn’t dead. It just grew up. That means the modern enforcer is a multi-tool player. He has to be able to skate, forecheck, kill penalties, and – this is the part the old guard hates hearing – actually contribute to the scoresheet. You can’t just be a pair of fists anymore. You’ve got to be a hockey player who also happens to be willing to drop the gloves when the moment calls for it.

Take Mark Kastelic. The Bruins forward is the co-leader in NHL fights this season with 10 tilts. But he also put up 12 goals and 10 assists while playing all 82 games. That’s not a goon stat line. That’s a legitimate fourth-line center who can also rearrange your face. His best scrap of the year? A 7.46-rated war with Mathieu Olivier on March 29th. Fuckin’ beauty.

Or look at Montreal’s Arber Xhekaj. “Wifi” is a legitimate defenseman who logs real minutes, plays on the penalty kill, and moves the puck. He also happens to be a terrifying human being who had 8 fights this season, including a heavyweight clash with Rempe that shook the Bell Centre. We’ve been tracking the Rempire State Building since his debut, and Wifi is one of the few guys who can go toe-to-toe with him.

Even the closest thing we have to a traditional heavyweight – Mathieu Olivier of Columbus – plays a regular shift. He tied for fourth in the league with 9 fights, including an absolute war with Ryan Reaves on January 6th that HockeyFights.com rated an 8.59. That was the highest-rated fight of the entire 2025-26 season. These guys aren’t just taking up space on the bench. They’re earning their paychecks.

Curtis Douglas of Tampa Bay tied Kastelic for the fight lead with 10 bouts. At 6’9″, he’s the closest thing to a Boogaard-sized human the league has seen in years. But even Douglas had to prove he could play a regular shift before Jon Cooper would put him on the ice.

The 2025-26 Fight Landscape

If you think hockey fights are gone, the numbers tell a different story.

According to HockeyFights.com, there were 281 total fights across the 32 NHL teams during the 2025-26 regular season. That’s not 1987 numbers – back then you were looking at 0.85 fights per game – but it’s a hell of a lot more than zero. And the fight quality has been outstanding.

Here’s what the top of the fight card looked like this year:

Player	Team	Fights
Mark Kastelic	Boston Bruins	10
Curtis Douglas	Tampa Bay / Vancouver	10
Ross Johnston	Anaheim Ducks	9
Mathieu Olivier	Columbus Blue Jackets	9
Sam Carrick	NYR / TBL / BUF	9
Arber Xhekaj	Montreal Canadiens	8
Tanner Jeannot	Boston Bruins	8
Brandon Duhaime	Washington Capitals	8

The Tampa Bay Lightning led the league with 44 fights. They also went 50-26 and made the playoffs. In fact, six of the top seven fighting teams this season clinched playoff spots. There’s a correlation there, even if the analytics nerds don’t want to admit it. A team that’s willing to bleed for each other tends to be a team that’s hard to play against. I’m not saying fighting wins you the Cup. I’m saying it’s not the liability the “ban fighting” crowd wants you to believe it is.

And the goalie fights. My god, the goalie fights.

Three separate goalie brawls in one season. Jeremy Swayman vs. Andrei Vasilevskiy on February 1st. Alex Nedeljkovic vs. Sergei Bobrovsky on January 19th. Jacob Markstrom vs. Igor Shesterkin on March 31st. That’s more goalie fights than we’ve seen in the previous five seasons combined. Something’s in the water, and I love it.

The Bruins: Still Dropping the Mitts

And what about our beloved Boston Bruins?

They finished second in the entire NHL with 33 fights. Kastelic led the way with his 10, but Tanner Jeannot chipped in 8 of his own – including a 7.91-rated barn-burner against Nicolas Deslauriers in Philly on February 28th. Even Swayman got in on the action with that Vasilevskiy tilt. Film at eleven.

We broke down the Bruins’ full 2026 fight card last month, and the fourth line was the heart and soul of this team all year. Kastelic, Jeannot, and the rest of the bottom six brought an edge that the top lines couldn’t always match.

The B’s might have pissed away a 100-point season in the playoffs, but you can’t say they lacked pushback. When the chips were down, they answered the bell. That counts for something. Maybe not enough, but something.

FAQ: The Enforcer Question

Are enforcers still a thing in hockey?

Yes, but the role has changed. The one-dimensional goon who played four minutes a night is gone. Modern enforcers like Mark Kastelic and Arber Xhekaj are legitimate hockey players who contribute goals, assists, and penalty kill minutes while still leading the league in fighting majors. The 2025-26 season had 281 fights across 32 teams – the enforcer adapted, he didn’t disappear.

Who are the best fighters in the NHL right now?

Mark Kastelic and Curtis Douglas led the 2025-26 season with 10 fights each. Mathieu Olivier, Ross Johnston, and Sam Carrick each had 9. Arber Xhekaj and Tanner Jeannot finished with 8 apiece. Olivier’s January 6th bout with Ryan Reaves earned the highest fan rating of the season at 8.59 on HockeyFights.com.

Why did traditional enforcers disappear from the NHL?

Three things killed the old-school enforcer. The 2005 salary cap made it impossible to justify a roster spot for a player who couldn’t skate. Rule changes like the instigator penalty and helmet-off rule added costs to every fight. And the deaths of Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien, and Wade Belak in 2011 forced the league to confront the human toll of the heavyweight lifestyle. The pipeline dried up after that.

Does fighting actually help teams win?

The numbers are interesting. In 2025-26, six of the top seven teams in fighting majors made the playoffs. Tampa Bay led the league with 44 fights and went 50-26. Boston was second with 33 fights and hit 100 points. That’s not proof that fighting wins championships, but it suggests that teams willing to play a physical, accountable brand of hockey tend to be competitive. The Carolina Hurricanes and Colorado Avalanche ranked near the bottom in fights and were Cup favorites, so it cuts both ways.

So – the enforcer isn’t dead. Thank Christ. He just learned how to skate.

And as long as there are cheap shots… and momentum swings… and guys running your goalie – there will be a place for the player willing to drop the mitts and answer the bell.

Just don’t expect him to be sitting on the bench for 55 minutes a night anymore. That version of the job is gone. But the spirit of it? That’s still very much alive in the NHL.

The post Do Enforcers Still Exist in Hockey? Modern NHL Fight Roles first appeared on GoonBlog.com.

Unacceptable: The Bruins Piss Away Their 100-point Season

2026-05-04T23:13:06Z

The Boston Bruins’ 2025-26 season ended in a 4-1 Game 6 loss to the Buffalo Sabres at TD Garden on May 1, 2026, eliminating them from the first round of the NHL playoffs. This post breaks down the catastrophic failure of the Bruins’ top lines, the surprising grit of the fourth line featuring Mark Kastelic, Sean Kuraly, and Tanner Jeannot, and the unforgettable moment Buffalo fans sang the Canadian anthem at KeyBank Center before Game 5.

I’m sitting here in front of a screen displaying a taunting final score.

My head hurts. My soul hurts. The Bruins just got bounced from the playoffs by the Buffalo Sabres in six games, and I can’t stop replaying it.

Unacceptable is the only word I can come up with to describe last night’s series-ending loss to our old Adams Division rival. I don’t want to take anything away from Buffalo here. They’re a good hockey team, and their fan base has been waiting for a playoff series win since 2007 – that’s 19 years of suffering, which is a language we speak fluently in this town. Hats off to them. But where I’m struggling is the math.

How does a team that tied for the league lead with 29 wins at home this year lose all three home games in the playoffs? The stakes don’t get any higher than this. And they were the better team for about a period and a half last night. Then they wound up losing 4-1.

Say it with me.

Unacceptable.

In This Article

The home ice collapse nobody can explain
Game 4 was a war crime
Kasty, Kuraly, and Jeannot did their damn jobs
No mic, no problem – that anthem moment in Buffalo
The top guys went ghost
So now what?

The Inexplicable Home Ice Collapse

The Bruins went 29-11-1 at home during the regular season. Tied with Carolina for the best home record in the league. TD Garden was a fortress. Teams hated coming to Boston. The crowd was loud, the ice was fast, and the B’s fed off that energy night after night from October through April.

Then the playoffs started.

Game 3 at home – loss, 3-1. Game 4 at home – loss, 6-1. Game 6 at home – loss, 4-1. Three games on home ice, three losses, and the Sabres treated our barn like they owned the deed to it. Charlie McAvoy said it after Game 6: “It’s not acceptable. I don’t know exactly what it is.” And honestly, I don’t either. I’ve been watching this team for decades and I can’t remember a stretch where the Garden felt that lifeless in the postseason. Maybe I’m blocking it out. Probably am.

You build a 100-point season on the back of a dominant home record. You make the Garden a place where visiting teams don’t want to play. And then you lay three eggs when it counts most.

I don’t have an answer for it.

Game 4 Was a War Crime

Game 4 last Sunday may have been the poorest effort in a playoff game in the history of playoff games.

I know that sounds like hyperbole. It isn’t. The Sabres scored four goals in the first period. Four. At TD Garden. In the playoffs. The building was dead by the second intermission. I was watching from my couch and I wanted to turn it off, and I never turn off a Bruins game. That’s not something I do. But 6-1? In a game where you’re down 2-1 in the series and your season is on the line?

Sean Kuraly scored a shorthanded goal with 40 seconds left to avoid the shutout, and honestly that might have been the most depressing goal I’ve ever been happy about. Like finding a dollar bill in the pocket of a suit you wore to a funeral. Marco Sturm had to have ripped into them after that one.

The practice the next day was apparently heated. Guys were going at each other. Good. They should’ve been pissed. That Game 4 performance was an embarrassment, and if you can’t get angry about it, you don’t belong in the playoffs.

Kasty, Kuraly, and Jeannot Did Their Jobs

I will say this. I was very impressed by Boston’s fourth line.

We touched on this the other day, and I know we’ve been singing Kastelic’s praises all season, but I can’t get enough of a good fourth line. Our buddy Mark Kastelic was especially good in this series. The man played like he had something to prove every single shift. Crash and bang. Hitting everything that moved. Getting under Buffalo’s skin the way a fourth liner is supposed to.

In Game 5 – Boston’s best game of the series, the 2-1 overtime win in Buffalo – Kastelic took a slapper off the instep in the second period. Growing up playing hockey as a defenseman, I’ve taken my fair share of shots off my feet. I can tell you from experience, and if I may quote the great Denis Lemieux, “It hurt like hell!” I’ve never taken a shot in an NHL playoff game off the instep, and I can only picture how much that stung. Kastelic limped off the ice and we all thought, well, thanks for the good time Kasty. No way he’s coming back. Wrong.

He came back. He was his typical self – throwing his body around, winning board battles, doing all the little things that don’t show up on the scoresheet but absolutely show up in the outcome. Sturm said after the game that Kastelic was “completely fine,” which is coach-speak for “that guy is tougher than a two-dollar steak.” And he helped the B’s force a Game 6 with that win.

As for Sean Kuraly and Tanner Jeannot, they were outstanding too. Both guys chipped in goals during the series – Jeannot opened the scoring in Game 3 and scored again in Game 5, and Kuraly grabbed that shorthanded tally in the Game 4 disaster. They did everything they could to stir the pot when given their ice time. If Sturm ripped into the team for a lack of effort, he wasn’t talking to them.

They were Boston’s best line over the six games they played. Full stop.

And that’s the thing about a good fourth line – it reminds you of what this sport is supposed to look like. Guys who don’t have the skill of a Pastrnak or the skating ability of a McAvoy, but who show up every night and play like their careers depend on it. That’s the spirit of the Merlot Line. That’s old time hockey.

The Anthem Moment in Buffalo

I want to thank The Ref for his piece on the anthem singer’s mic cutting out the other night. If you haven’t read it, go check it out.

You might not know The Ref is a dual citizen of both the US and Canada. Let’s put it this way – if you fire up Bob and Doug’s Great White North, he comes running. His favorite non-Tragically Hip song is Take Off. The guy is as Canadian as they come, so I know the moment was especially moving for him.

It happened before Game 5 at KeyBank Center in Buffalo. Cami Clune was singing O Canada and her microphone just died. Dead air. And the Buffalo fans stepped up and finished singing the Canadian anthem at the top of their lungs. I thought it was really special. Then Clune got a new mic and the fans did the Star-Spangled Banner proud too, singing right along with her.

Hockey fans get a bad rap sometimes. But moments like that remind you why this sport is different.

Watch: Buffalo Fans Finish It Up, Buddy

The Top Guys Went Ghost

We love the fourth line here at Goonblog. But come playoff time, you need the top guys to be a going concern, and for the Bruins, that just wasn’t the case. You can’t win a series when your highest-paid forwards are invisible. The grinders can hit everything that moves and play their hearts out. They can’t score four goals a night. That’s not their job. It’s the job of the guys making the big money, and those guys didn’t deliver.

Pastrnak had one regular-season-looking goal in the whole series. One. That’s not going to cut it.

Watch: Sabres vs. Bruins Game 6 Highlights

I’m not going to pile on here. Well, actually, maybe I am. No – I’ll leave it alone. The season was a hell of a ride and I don’t want to end on a sour note about the guys who got us here. But the fact remains: if your top six doesn’t produce in the playoffs, you’re going home. And we went home.

So Now What?

Overall, I think the playoff run for them was such a surprise that I’m not even mad they’re out. Or maybe I am. I keep going back and forth.

If you’d asked me in the fall where Boston would finish the season, I would’ve said… lottery team. For sure. This roster didn’t look like a playoff team on paper. Then they go and rattle off a 45-27-10 record, a 100-point season, and take the Sabres to six games in round one. Sturm did a hell of a job in his first year behind the bench. The young guys stepped up. Swayman was a Vezina finalist. There’s a lot to feel good about.

But those three home losses are going to eat at me all summer.

So now the Bruins are indeed out. I’m not sure who I’m pulling for to win it all. I’ve got a sneaky feeling about the Minnesota Wild. I feel like they’re the only thing in Minnesota that isn’t fraudulent these days.

Enjoy the hockey, eh? Hopefully we get some rough stuff as the temperature gets turned up in the second round.

The post Unacceptable: The Bruins Piss Away Their 100-point Season first appeared on GoonBlog.com.

No Mic, No Problem: Buffalo Sabres Fans Belt Out O Canada

2026-04-30T01:43:56Z

I was watching the pregame feed from Buffalo last night, waiting for Game 5 to start. Cami Clune was at center ice, ready to sing O Canada.

She got about ten words in before the microphone died. Completely dead air. You could see the panic on her face for a split second. But then something incredible happened. The crowd at KeyBank Center took over.

They sang the rest of the Canadian national anthem at the top of their lungs.

And they knew the words. Every single one of them.

As a Canadian guy who grew up in Ottawa and now lives in Vermont, I can tell you exactly how that felt to watch. It hit hard. You don’t expect 19,000 Americans to know the lyrics to another country’s anthem. You definitely don’t expect them to sing it with that kind of volume. But Buffalo isn’t just any American city, and hockey isn’t just any sport.

Why Buffalo Knows O Canada

The Sabres are unique in the NHL. Most American teams only play the Canadian anthem when a Canadian team is visiting. Buffalo plays it before every single home game, regardless of the opponent.

They do it out of respect for their geography. KeyBank Center is literally five miles from the Canadian border. A massive chunk of the Sabres’ fan base drives over the Peace Bridge from Fort Erie and Southern Ontario for every game. They are a binational franchise in everything but name.

So when that mic cut out, those fans weren’t just being polite. They were singing a song they hear 41 times a year. They own it just as much as we do.

A History of Cross-Border Respect

This isn’t the first time hockey fans have stepped up when the anthem goes sideways. It’s actually a pretty proud tradition in this sport.

Back in 2014, right after the tragic shooting at the National War Memorial in Ottawa, the Pittsburgh Penguins were hosting the Philadelphia Flyers. Two American teams. But the Penguins had their legendary anthem singer, Jeff Jimerson, sing O Canada anyway as a tribute. The entire Consol Energy Center sang along.

Jimerson actually made a habit of that. He would regularly point the microphone at the Pittsburgh crowd during the Canadian anthem and let them take the chorus. That’s the kind of thing that makes you proud to be a hockey fan.

Of course, it goes both ways. In Toronto, we’ve seen Maple Leafs fans take over the Star-Spangled Banner when the mic failed. There is a mutual respect between these two countries in hockey arenas that you just don’t see anywhere else. It’s the same spirit that makes a Gregory Campbell sweater still get a reaction from the crowd twenty years later.

The Montreal Contrast

I’d be lying if I said last night’s moment in Buffalo didn’t feel a little extra special given what happened a couple of months ago.

If you watched the 4 Nations Face-Off in February 2025, you remember the scene in Montreal. The Bell Centre crowd loudly booed the American national anthem before the US played Finland. It was ugly. It was embarrassing. It made national news for all the wrong reasons.

I hated seeing that. Most Canadians hated seeing that. That’s not who we are.

So to see Buffalo fans step up and belt out O Canada with zero hesitation? That’s the real relationship right there. That’s the hockey community I know. It’s the same reason we still believe the enforcer still has a place in this game – because hockey is about more than just the score. It’s about respect.

The mic might have failed, but the crowd didn’t. Well done, Buffalo. You boys did us proud.

The post No Mic, No Problem: Buffalo Sabres Fans Belt Out O Canada first appeared on GoonBlog.com.

Union Labor and Broken Bones: A Gregory Campbell Sweater in the Wild

2026-04-30T01:44:46Z

This post is a tribute to the Boston Bruins fourth line legacy, specifically the Merlot Line – the trio of Gregory Campbell, Shawn Thornton, and Daniel Paille who defined gritty, grinding hockey at TD Garden from 2010 to 2014. Written from the perspective of a lifelong Bruins fan who spotted a Gregory Campbell Bruins sweater in the crowd during the 2025-26 season, it covers the Merlot Line Boston Bruins history, the heavyweight fight record of Shawn Thornton Bruins fans still talk about, and the moment Gregory Campbell broke his leg on the penalty kill against Pittsburgh and refused to leave the ice.

Walking Into a 6-1 Bloodletting

Walking into the Garden yesterday for the 6-1 bloodletting, I saw a gentleman wearing a Gregory Campbell sweater.

In addition to it being one of the most random jerseys in the raucous crowd, it made me think about how much the beloved Boston Bruins faithful love a good fourth liner. We suffer through losses like yesterday’s with a quiet, grim dignity. But you see a Gregory Campbell sweater and something clicks. You remember what this team was. You remember what it felt like to watch a line that would run through a wall for you and not ask for a damn thing in return.

The Merlot Line Boston Bruins era ran from roughly 2010 to 2014. Campbell, Thornton, and Paille. They were an interesting bunch, and not in the way that gets you a 10-team bidding war in free agency. Interesting in the way that made you feel like the guy next to you at the bar actually played for your team. (Which is the highest compliment I can give, for the record.)

The Gregory Campbell Bruins Experience: All Heart, No Quit

Gregory Campbell came over from Florida in the same deal that brought Nathan Horton to Boston. Guy was all heart.

In addition to his Boston Bruins fourth line role, he was an excellent penalty killer. And then came the moment. The 2013 playoffs, second round against Pittsburgh. Campbell is out on the PK, takes a shot off his leg, and breaks it. Clean. Right there on the ice. He can’t skate. He can barely stand. And he finishes his shift anyway – hopping on one leg, stick down, refusing to leave until the whistle blows.

THAT is what will endear you to the union labor in the balcony at the TD Garden.

Not a hat trick. Not a highlight-reel goal. A guy with a broken leg who won’t quit because quitting isn’t in his vocabulary. The building went absolutely insane. I was not there that night, but I’ve watched the clip probably forty times and it gets me every single time. (I’m not crying. You’re crying.)

The Gregory Campbell Bruins years didn’t produce a ton of points. He wasn’t going to win you a Selke. But he was the kind of player who made you proud to wear the sweater, and that counts for something. It counts for a lot, actually.

Shawn Thornton Bruins: The Heavyweight Muscle of the Merlot Line

Then there was the muscle.

Shawn Thornton fought everyone in the heavyweight division from that era, and he did well. Check his full fight card over at HockeyFights.com if you want the receipts – the guy was a legitimate heavyweight who answered the bell every single time. He wasn’t the kind of enforcer who picked his spots. He went when it needed to happen.

But here’s the thing people forget about the Shawn Thornton Bruins years: he had sneaky good hands around the net. He could contribute offensively every now and then. He’d drop the mitts, rearrange some guy’s snot box, and then go pot a greasy goal in the next shift. It wasn’t a frequent occurrence, I’ll grant you that. But it happened enough that you never fully wrote him off as just a fighter.

The Merlot Line Boston Bruins worked because Thornton set the physical tone. You didn’t take liberties with the Bruins’ stars when Thornton was on the bench. You just didn’t. And if you tried, you were going to have a very bad night. That accountability – that’s what the fourth line is supposed to provide, and he provided it better than almost anyone in that era.

Daniel Paille Bruins: The First-Rounder Who Said “Where Do I Sign?”

Danny Paille, a former first-round pick, was fast.

He was a guy who wanted to stay in the NHL. Period. When he was asked to become a gritty fourth liner, he didn’t sulk. He didn’t demand a trade. He essentially said, “Where do I sign?” and got to work. That attitude is rarer than you’d think, especially from a guy who was drafted in the first round and probably had different dreams about what his NHL career would look like.

The Daniel Paille Bruins era gave the Merlot Line the speed it needed to actually forecheck and create turnovers. They weren’t three slow guys looking to hit people. They could skate. Paille was quick enough to chase down pucks in the corners and create zone time, which meant the line wasn’t just out there to fight and take penalties. They could actually play. (Imagine that.)

He was also a solid penalty killer. The whole line was. That’s what made them so useful – they weren’t a liability. You could put them out in any situation and trust them to do the right thing.

Why the Boston Bruins Fourth Line Still Owns the Balcony

The Boston Bruins fourth line has always held a special place in this city’s heart.

We see ourselves in those guys. They clock in, do the dirty work, and don’t complain. They’re the guys who give ‘er every single shift, who block shots without flinching, who fight when it needs to happen and skate hard when it doesn’t. The stars get the statues outside the Garden. The fourth liners get the lasting respect of the balcony, and honestly? I’m not sure which one is worth more in this town.

Seeing that Campbell sweater yesterday was a gut punch of nostalgia in the middle of a 6-1 loss. It was a reminder that this franchise has produced some genuinely great teams – teams built on exactly the kind of character that doesn’t show up in the box score. The Merlot Line Boston Bruins won a Stanley Cup in 2011. They were a big reason why. Not because of their points, but because of what they brought to the ice every night.

Frig off with the fancy analytics. Give me a broken leg on the penalty kill any day of the week. And if you want to see where the enforcer fits into the modern game, we’ve got thoughts on that too.

The post Union Labor and Broken Bones: A Gregory Campbell Sweater in the Wild first appeared on GoonBlog.com.

Three Seconds In: Every Fight From the 2026 NHL Playoffs So Far

2026-04-28T19:47:02Z

GoonBlog.com is tracking every confirmed hockey fight from the 2026 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. The first round kicked off April 18, 2026, and the gloves came off almost immediately – starting with Brady Tkachuk and Jordan Staal dropping them three seconds into Game 1 of the Ottawa Senators vs. Carolina Hurricanes series. This post covers all four confirmed playoff tilts logged on the premier hockey fighting database through April 26, 2026, with blow-by-blow breakdowns, fight verdicts, and series context for each bout.

Three seconds. That’s how long it took.

The puck dropped in Raleigh on April 18, and before anyone had even processed the fact that playoff hockey was back, Brady Tkachuk and Jordan Staal were already throwing hands at center ice. The crowd went absolutely berserk. And honestly? Same.

That’s the thing about playoff hockey fights. They hit different. Regular season scraps are great – don’t get me wrong – but when the stakes are real and the gloves drop in the first minute of a playoff game, it means something. It’s a statement. It’s two guys saying we are not here to play nice. And I am here for every second of it.

So let’s get into it. The 2026 playoffs have given us four confirmed bouts through April 26. Four. The first round is barely a week old. We’re just getting started, Goons and Goonettes.

Three Seconds In: Tkachuk vs. Staal (April 18)
The Bruins Connection: Kastelic vs. Stanley (April 21)
The One Nobody Saw Coming: Slafkovsky vs. Hagel (April 21)
Late-Game Chaos: Podkolzin vs. Viel (April 24)
The Scoreboard: All 2026 Playoff Fights at a Glance
FAQ: Your Burning Questions About Playoff Fighting

Three Seconds In: Tkachuk vs. Staal

April 18, 2026 | Game 1 | Ottawa at Carolina | 1st Period – 0:03

Voted winner: Jordan Staal (74%) | Rating: 5.39 | 94 votes

I’m going to need you to sit with that timestamp for a second. Zero minutes, three seconds. The puck had barely touched the ice.

Brady Tkachuk – Ottawa’s captain, their heart, their designated chaos agent – skated straight at Jordan Staal and invited him to dance. And Staal, who has been around long enough to know exactly what Tkachuk was doing, accepted without hesitation. These are two guys who’ve been in this league a combined 30-plus years. They didn’t need a warmup.

The fight itself was a solid playoff-caliber scrap. Tkachuk got in close, which is his thing – he’s not a guy who needs a lot of space to do damage. Staal, meanwhile, is a big body who knows how to use his reach. He landed the cleaner shots and walked away with 74% of the fan vote, which is a pretty decisive verdict.

But here’s the thing: Tkachuk didn’t lose this fight in any way that mattered. He won the moment. Ottawa came into Carolina as a heavy underdog, and their captain sent a message to the whole building before the puck had even been in play for five seconds. That’s old time hockey. That’s the stuff Reg Dunlop would’ve nodded at. You can read more about Staal setting the tone for the Hurricanes on NHL.com.

(Carolina swept Ottawa 4-0, by the way. So maybe the message didn’t land quite the way Tkachuk intended. But still. Three seconds, man.)

The series context matters here. The Hurricanes were the top seed in the East. Ottawa was the eight seed. Nobody gave the Sens a shot. And Tkachuk’s opening-second scrap was the team’s way of saying they weren’t going to get pushed around. They did get pushed around eventually – swept, in fact – but not without swinging.

The Bruins Connection: Kastelic vs. Stanley

April 21, 2026 | Game 2 | Boston at Buffalo | 3rd Period – 2:26

Voted winner: Mark Kastelic (42%) | Rating: 4.22 | 58 votes

Oh, you knew this was coming. You knew I’d find a way to make a Bruins playoff fight post about the Bruins even when the Bruins are the ones getting their asses kicked.

Here’s the deal: the beloved Boston Bruins came into this series as a wild card against the Buffalo Sabres, who have been absolutely on fire since December. The Sabres went 39-9-4 in the second half of the season. That’s not a typo. They were a freight train. And yet the Bruins somehow stole Game 1 before Buffalo evened it up in Game 2.

And in the third period of that Game 2, Mark Kastelic – our guy, the crown jewel of a shitty deal, the current GoonBlog favorite Bruin – dropped the mitts with Logan Stanley.

Now, Stanley is a big dude. Six-foot-seven. He’s been around the league a while and he can handle himself. But Kastelic is Kastelic. The man has been one of the most active fighters in the NHL this season, and he’s got hands. The two of them went at it for a solid exchange, and the fans gave Kastelic the edge at 42% to Stanley’s 32%.

(The math nerds among you will notice those numbers don’t add up to 100%. That’s because the remaining voters apparently couldn’t decide. Which, fair enough – it was a competitive bout.)

The other penalty note from this fight: Charlie McAvoy and Beck Malenstyn each picked up roughing minors at the same time. So it wasn’t just Kastelic and Stanley – the whole bench was feeling it. That’s playoff hockey, baby.

Update (April 27): The Sabres now lead this series 3-1. The Bruins are on the brink. It is not going great. But Kastelic fought. That counts for something. Check out the full 2026 NHL playoff bracket on CBS Sports to see how the rest of the matchups are shaking out.

The One Nobody Saw Coming: Slafkovsky vs. Hagel

April 21, 2026 | Game 3 | Montreal at Tampa Bay | 2nd Period – 5:14

Voted winner: Brandon Hagel (89%) | Rating: 6.06 | 83 votes

Okay. This one I did not have on my bingo card.

Juraj Slafkovsky and Brandon Hagel. Two skill forwards. Two guys who are not exactly known for their fighting. And yet here we are, talking about one of the more lopsided fight verdicts of the entire 2026 postseason so far.

Hagel won this one going away – 89% of the vote, which is about as decisive as it gets. And look, I’m not going to pretend I’m shocked that Hagel held his own. The guy has been in a few scraps over his career and he’s not soft. But Slafkovsky is listed at 6-foot-4 and 230 pounds. He’s a big kid. The fact that Hagel – who’s listed at 6-foot and 185 – walked away with that kind of vote tells you something about how the exchange went.

The context here is interesting. This series is now tied 2-2 as of April 27 – Tampa Bay answered back after Montreal took an early lead. And this fight, Hagel getting physical with one of Montreal’s best young players in Game 3, felt like the Lightning sending a message of their own. Message received.

The rating of 6.06 is the highest of any 2026 playoff fight so far. So whatever happened in that second period, people were entertained.

Late-Game Chaos: Podkolzin vs. Viel

April 24, 2026 | Game 3 | Edmonton at Anaheim | 3rd Period – 19:35

Voted winner: Vasily Podkolzin (58%) | Rating: 3.68 | 23 votes

Late in the third period of a game that was already decided, Vasily Podkolzin and Jeffrey Viel decided they had some things to work out.

This is the kind of fight that happens when a game gets chippy and two guys who’ve been bumping into each other all night finally say “alright, let’s go.” Viel is a legitimate tough guy – he’s got some serious fights on his resume, including a 9.12-rated bout back in 2023 that’s one of the highest-rated fights in recent memory. Podkolzin, meanwhile, has been getting more comfortable in this role since coming to Edmonton.

Podkolzin won the vote at 58%, which is a modest edge. The 3.68 rating is the lowest of the four playoff fights so far, which makes sense – late-game, game already decided, both guys a little gassed. But it still counts. A fight’s a fight.

The bigger story here is the series. The Anaheim Ducks – yes, the Anaheim Ducks, who were supposed to be a rebuilding team – now lead the Edmonton Oilers 3-1. The Oilers have been to the Finals the last two years and lost both times – to the Florida Panthers, who are the actual defending Stanley Cup champions. Back-to-back. And now Edmonton is one loss from going home to a team that finished the regular season with a losing record.

That’s the playoffs, man. Anything can happen. And apparently, anything includes Vasily Podkolzin getting into a scrap with Jeffrey Viel at 19:35 of the third period while his team is trying to figure out how to not get upset by the Ducks.

The Scoreboard: All 2026 Playoff Fights at a Glance

Here’s the full breakdown of every confirmed fight from the 2026 NHL playoffs through April 26, 2026, per the premier online fighting log:

Date	Matchup	Series	Period	Time	Voted Winner	Rating
April 18	B. Tkachuk (OTT) vs. J. Staal (CAR)	CAR vs. OTT (Game 1)	1st	0:03	Jordan Staal (74%)	5.39
April 21	M. Kastelic (BOS) vs. L. Stanley (BUF)	BUF vs. BOS (Game 2)	3rd	2:26	Mark Kastelic (42%)	4.22
April 21	J. Slafkovsky (MTL) vs. B. Hagel (TBL)	TBL vs. MTL (Game 3)	2nd	5:14	Brandon Hagel (89%)	6.06
April 24	V. Podkolzin (EDM) vs. J. Viel (ANA)	EDM vs. ANA (Game 3)	3rd	19:35	Vasily Podkolzin (58%)	3.68

Four fights. Four different series. Four different stories.

The average rating across all four bouts is 4.84, which is a solid baseline for a playoff that’s barely a week old. The Hagel-Slafkovsky fight is the standout so far at 6.06. The Tkachuk-Staal opener is the most meaningful contextually. And the Kastelic-Stanley bout is the one I’m personally most invested in, because Bruins.

FAQ: Your Burning Questions About Playoff Fighting

Can you even fight in the NHL playoffs?

Yes. Absolutely yes. Fighting carries the same penalties in the playoffs as the regular season – a five-minute major for each player. The idea that fighting is somehow banned or extra-penalized in the playoffs is a myth. The NHL has never eliminated fighting from playoff hockey, and long may that continue. You can read up on the history of fighting in hockey at Britannica if you want a deep dive into the rules and the debate.

Why did Tkachuk and Staal fight three seconds into Game 1?

Because Brady Tkachuk is Brady Tkachuk. He’s the kind of captain who sets the tone with his body, not just his words. Ottawa was a heavy underdog going into that series, and Tkachuk wanted to make sure Carolina knew from the jump that the Senators weren’t going to be pushed around. Staal, for his part, has been around long enough to know that you don’t back down from that kind of challenge – especially not in a playoff opener on home ice.

Is fighting in the playoffs more or less common than the regular season?

Generally less common, and the numbers bear that out. Playoff hockey tends to be tighter, more disciplined, and more structured than the regular season. Teams are less willing to take five-minute majors in high-stakes games. But that doesn’t mean fighting disappears – it just means the fights that do happen tend to carry more weight and more context. For a look at how the 2026 playoffs are shaping up overall, check the current NHL standings and playoff picture.

Which 2026 playoff fight had the highest rating?

Slafkovsky vs. Hagel on April 21, with a 6.06 rating from the fans. 83 people voted, and 89% gave the win to Brandon Hagel. That’s a dominant verdict.

The first round isn’t over yet. There are series still being decided, and more hockey – and more fights – to come. We’ll keep updating this post as new bouts get logged.

And if the Bruins can pull off this comeback against Buffalo, I’ll be writing about Kastelic fights until my fingers fall off.

Give ‘er.

The post Three Seconds In: Every Fight From the 2026 NHL Playoffs So Far first appeared on GoonBlog.com.

How Wicked Sweet It Is: The Bruins 2026 Fight Card So Far

2026-04-28T19:50:00Z

You know how you sometimes look at the calendar and it’s already April? Well, that’s a thing in my world, and the Bruins are sitting at 43-26, grinding toward the playoffs, with the boys dropping the mitts like it’s 2011 all over again.

I haven’t written a post in a minute. Life gets in the way. Kids, work, the general exhaustion of being a New England sports fan right now. And Jackie Gleason wouldn’t be proud. But looking at the fight card since January 1st got me fired up. Our beloved Boston Bruins have answered the bell 13 times in 11 games since the ball dropped.

We don’t think Jackie ever played hockey – but how sweet that would have been.

And they aren’t just hugging it out. They are throwing absolute chin-biscuits. Let’s discuss.

The Crown Jewel of the Shitty Deal

Mark Kastelic is a menace.

When the Bruins made that trade, I was skeptical. Most of us were. But Kastelic has turned into an absolute beauty on the ice, shining amid the Bruins’ struggles. He leads the team with four scraps since January.

His tilt with Mathieu Olivier on March 29th was heavyweight material. Olivier is a confident killer, maybe the current champ of the league. Kastelic didn’t care. They went toe-to-toe in Columbus. Kastelic threw a massive right hook. Olivier answered. It was old time hockey at its finest.

Kastelic also handled Michael McCarron the night before. Back-to-back nights dropping the gloves. McCarron is a big boy, but Kastelic dodged an uppercut and landed a short left jab that threw McCarron off balance. That is the kind of energy this team needs heading into the postseason.

He also fought Brendan Dillon and Johnathan Kovacevic in the same game against New Jersey on March 16. Two fights in one night. Absolute animal. Kastelic laid a big hit on Paul Cotter, and Kovacevic stepped up to answer for it (bad call, Jon). Then later in the game, Mark and Brendan went at it after a scrum.

And let’s not forget the January 10th scrap against the Rangers. Kastelic squared up with Sam Carrick right on the center ice dot, giving fans flashbacks to the 2025 pre-season tilts against New York. It got nasty. Carrick landed early, but Kastelic rallied, and the TD Garden crowd went nuts.

“We were just trying to get some energy going,” Kastelic said after the game. It worked. The Bruins won 10-2.

In that same contest, Sean Kuraly dropped the gloves with Will Cuylle. It wasn’t as flashy as the Kastelic fight, but it kept the blood pumping.

Jeannot Is Earning His Keep

Tanner Jeannot is another guy pulling his weight in the snot-box-bashing department.

He fought Erik Gudbranson on March 29th in the same game Kastelic fought Olivier. Two nasty fights to spark a comeback. Jeannot grappled with Gudbranson, a massive human being, and held his own.

He also dropped Nicolas Deslauriers on February 28th. Deslauriers is a scary dude, easily one of the top 5 NHL enforcers right now. But Jeannot handled his business in Philly. And he took on A.J. Greer down in Florida. Jeannot dropped the gloves with the former Bruin and was the clear winner of the scrap.

The Stadium Series Shocker

I didn’t expect to see a goalie fight this year. I really didn’t.

But February 1st at Raymond James Stadium. 65,000 people watching. The Bruins and the Lightning. Brandon Hagel started poking around Jeremy Swayman’s crease. Swayman wasn’t having it. He went after Hagel. And then Andrei Vasilevskiy skated down the ice.

A goalie fight in an outdoor game. It almost made me forget about the beatdown the Blackhawks took at the 2025 Winter Classic. It was something else entirely.

It was the first goalie fight in NHL outdoor game history. Swayman and Vasilevskiy threw down, grabbed each other, and then gave each other a friendly pat on the back when it was over. It was the first Bruins goalie fight since Tim Thomas fought Carey Price in 2011, and brought back memories of Shawn Thornton drawing first blood at Fenway Park. I nearly spilled my beer watching it from the stands.

“For the first half of the game, they were all over us,” Vasilevskiy told NHL.com. The Lightning came back from a 4-goal deficit to win. “Obviously, that’s what 20 of us do for each other,” Hagel added about Vasilevskiy rushing to his defense. “I got a glove to the head. Obviously, (Vasilevskiy) didn’t like that… So that was the turning point of the game.”

The Young Guys And The Big Guys

Nikita Zadorov is massive. He fought Dakota Joshua on March 24th and Samuel Helenius on March 10th.

When Zadorov drops the gloves, it’s like watching a bear attack a camper. Joshua stepped up to fight Zadorov after a big hit on John Tavares. Zadorov threw multiple punches and landed the takedown, which you can see here. Against the Kings, Zadorov went after Helenius after Helenius drilled Charlie McAvoy in the corner.

Jonathan Aspirot, the kid from Montreal, got his first NHL fight on January 20th against Nathan Bastian. You can watch Aspirot and Bastian go at it here. Then he fought Kirby Dach a few days later. Dach actually suffered an apparent hand injury during the scrap. Good on the kid for showing up. Watch the Dach fight here.

Jeremy Lauzon also mixed it up with Kastelic on January 22nd. Kastelic laid a huge hit on Shea Theodore, and Lauzon came in to answer for it.

And Alexander Steeves fought Ryan Winterton in a tight game against Seattle in January. Watch the Steeves and Winterton scrap here.

Here is the full rundown of the 2026 Bruins fight card so far:

• March 29 at Columbus: T. Jeannot vs. E. Gudbranson ; M. Kastelic vs. M. Olivier

• March 28 vs. Minnesota: M. Kastelic vs. M. McCarron

• March 24 vs. Toronto: N. Zadorov vs. D. Joshua

• March 16 at New Jersey: M. Kastelic vs. B. Dillon ; M. Kastelic vs. J. Kovacevic

• March 10 vs. LA Kings: N. Zadorov vs. S. Helenius

• Feb 28 at Philadelphia: T. Jeannot vs. N. Deslauriers

• Feb 4 at Florida: T. Jeannot vs. A. Greer

• Feb 1 vs. Tampa Bay: J. Swayman vs. A. Vasilevskiy (Stadium Series)

• Jan 24 vs. Montreal: J. Aspirot vs. K. Dach

• Jan 22 vs. Vegas: M. Kastelic vs. J. Lauzon

• Jan 20 at Dallas: J. Aspirot vs. N. Bastian

• Jan 15 vs. Seattle: A. Steeves vs. R. Winterton

• Jan 10 vs. NY Rangers: M. Kastelic vs. S. Carrick ; S. Kuraly vs. W. Cuylle

The playoffs are a different animal. You can’t just skill your way to a Cup. You need guys willing to eat punches and throw them back when the game gets ugly, and right now Kastelic and Jeannot are setting that tone.

Thirteen fights in eleven games isn’t an accident. It’s a statement. This team is starting to look a lot like the 2011 squad that bullied its way to a parade. If they keep dropping the mitts like this, the rest of the Eastern Conference is going to have a long, miserable spring.

I just hope Swayman leaves his blocker on for the post-season. I’ll try to write again before someone loses teeth in round one. As opposed to a year in-between posts. No promises.

The post How Wicked Sweet It Is: The Bruins 2026 Fight Card So Far first appeared on GoonBlog.com.

The Best 2024-2025 NHL Fights

2026-04-28T19:57:46Z

From blue-line brawls to full-blown melees, this season was a gritty masterclass in one of the sport of hockey’s greatest differentiators: dropping the gloves.

The 2024–25 NHL season didn’t just deliver highlight-reel goals and breakout rookies. It delivered pugilistic carnage. And for fans who remember the golden era of enforcers, the message was clear- the fight game is far from dead.

Fists, Fury and a Full 82

There were 297 regular-season fights and two more in the playoffs, marking a noticeable uptick from recent years. This wasn’t just nostalgia, or heat-of-the-moment scraps. These were meaningful fights with momentum swings, revenge arcs, and playoff implications.

The increase in intensity was felt league-wide, but especially among the usual suspects:

Nashville led the way with 37 tilts, followed closely by Boston and Utah at 30 each.

Compare that to the 2020–21 season, where pandemic-era protocols and a rising focus on speed and skill, saw fight totals dip below 200. Or rewind to 2007–08, when there were 664 total fights—more than double what we saw this year.

The shift is obvious: while fighting may no longer be the nightly norm, it’s become something more strategic, more deliberate, and arguably more impactful.

Courtesy of TheSportsGeek.com

But let’s be clear: fewer fights doesn’t mean half-hearted donnys. When players did drop the gloves this past season, it was tied to storylines, history, or momentum swings that demanded a physical answer. It’s not fighting for the sake of fighting—it’s fighting to shift a game’s narrative.

Rookie Brawlers Make Their Mark

Matt Rempe vs. Dylan McIlrath

On October 29, Rangers forward Matt Rempe returned from the AHL and wasted no time reasserting himself. Facing off against Washington’s Dylan McIlrath, Rempe reignited an old rivalry from their AHL days.

The bout lasted nearly three minutes, with both players dishing out bombs in a gritty center-ice slugfest. Rempe was eventually taken down, but not before proving he could handle himself against one of the NHL’s most seasoned enforcers. He finished the season with 67 penalty minutes in just 42 games.

Rempe vs. Arber Xhekaj

January 19, Bell Centre. Montreal’s Arber Xhekaj met Rempe in a heavyweight clash that shook the rafters. The Rempe vs. Xhekaj scrap featured early punches from Rempe, followed by a relentless barrage from Xhekaj that brought the crowd to its feet.

Xhekaj’s technical edge and takedown sealed the moment as one of the best heavyweight battles of the season.

Veteran Brawlers Reassert Their Presence

Josh Anderson vs. Jacob Trouba

Canadiens forward Josh Anderson took issue with a hit from Rangers captain Jacob Trouba. The result? A punishing sequence that saw Anderson deliver a beatdown in front of a stunned Madison Square Garden. The bout earned a 7.85 fan rating.

Josh Anderson vs. Tom Wilson

One day later, Anderson followed up by dismantling Capitals bruiser Tom Wilson on Halloween night. The Canadiens winger walked away with a dominant 94% fan vote win.

These back-to-back showcases by Anderson signaled to the league: Montreal wasn’t backing down from anyone.

Heavyweight Classics That Shook the League

Olivier vs. Reaves

On January 22, fans were gifted the ultimate enforcer battle: Mathieu Olivier vs. Ryan Reaves. The fight saw Olivier gain an early advantage, knocking Reaves off balance before the Maple Leafs veteran rallied with counter-punches. The 7.83 rating said it all—this was a masterclass in big-man brawling.

Olivier vs. Xhekaj

November 16 featured another Olivier bout, this time with Xhekaj at the Bell Centre. Olivier won the fan vote, but Xhekaj’s grit and control marked him as a top-tier enforcer.

Rivalries and Retaliation

This season wasn’t just about one-off fights—it was about bad blood boiling over.

Flames vs. Oilers

The Battle of Alberta didn’t disappoint. On multiple occasions, line brawls and aggressive checking sparked skirmishes, with Brett Ritchie and Evander Kane squaring off in what fans called the most heated moment of the rivalry.

Bruins vs. Leafs

Toronto’s Ryan Reaves tangled with Bruins enforcer Trent Frederic on two separate occasions, both earning over 6.0 fight ratings. The Atlantic Division rivalry gained an edge that felt like vintage playoff hockey.

Panthers vs. Lightning

Florida and Tampa Bay continued their playoff-fueled feud with multiple dustups during regular-season matchups, culminating in a fight between Radko Gudas and Tanner Jeannot that drew comparisons to their 2022–23 playoff clashes.

Top Enforcers of the Season

Mathieu Olivier

Team: Columbus Blue Jackets
Fights: 10
PIM: 97
Signature Win: vs. Reaves

Arber Xhekaj

Team: Montreal Canadiens
Fights: 6
PIM: 81
Notable: Dominated multiple heavyweights

Josh Anderson

Team: Montreal Canadiens
Fights: 5
Notable Victories: Trouba, Wilson

Matt Rempe

Team: New York Rangers
Fights: 7
Penalty Minutes: 67

Ryan Reaves

Team: Toronto Maple Leafs
Fights: 6
Notable Bout: vs. Olivier

The State of Fighting in the NHL

Fighting in the NHL continues to evolve.

Rule changes have adjusted the dynamics—players who drop the gloves with helmets off face extra penalties, and referees are quicker to break up staged fights. Yet that hasn’t stopped fighters from stepping up when needed.

There’s also been cultural change. Enforcers now often double as useful bottom-six forwards. Many top fighters—like Duhaime and Xhekaj—aren’t just muscle; they’re versatile role players who can kill penalties or pressure the puck.

Analytics may dominate roster construction today, but there’s still room in the game for the guys who make sure your stars don’t get pushed around.

Fan Culture & Reactions

This season saw a massive wave of fan support for hockey fights. Social media lit up after the Rempe–Xhekaj bout. Memes, slow-mo edits, and breakdowns flooded TikTok and Instagram.

YouTube channels like Steve Dangle and Spittin’ Chiclets gave extra attention to the art of fighting, breaking down positioning and momentum.

Crowd reactions were just as wild. Bell Centre, Scotiabank Arena, and Bridgestone Arena fans regularly erupted for fights. One viral clip captured fans throwing hats for a fight win, not a hat trick.

Playoff Pandemonium

Panthers vs. Oilers – Game 3

Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final was pure mayhem. Five separate fights broke out. The biggest came from Nurse vs. Gadjovich, a back-and-forth war fans are still talking about.

Game footage showed everything—from Sam Bennett breaking Trent Frederic’s stick with a cross-check to a 9-year-old fan’s now-famous quote: “I really liked how they punched each other. A lot.”

Looking Ahead: 2025–26

If the 2024–25 season taught us anything, it’s that fighting is far from dead—it’s just smarter, sharper, and more contextual than ever.

Young blood is rising. Leonard, Rempe, Duhaime—they’re setting the tone for a new class of enforcers. Teams have learned that grit still wins in April and May, and management is responding accordingly.

Will we see 300+ fights again next season? Maybe. But it’s not the volume that matters—it’s the purpose, the meaning, and the electricity each one delivers. And in that sense, the tradition is alive and well.

The post The Best 2024-2025 NHL Fights first appeared on GoonBlog.com.

Oh Captain, My Captain – Winter Classic 2025

2025-07-01T14:07:11Z

First and fore-(check)-most – Happy New Year, Goons and Goonettes.

In the year of our Lord, 2025 – I resolve to be more timely in talking about hockey fights.

I have been trying to post this for two days (off to a great start!) but the people at my job have been all like, literally, like: you’re here to work. Not post about rink rumbles or Winter Classic confrontations.

Winter Classic Blackhawk Blues

Having said that, there was a pretty good goddamn scrap at the Winter Classic this year. But you’ve probably already heard about that via word of mouth marketing, Tumbler and MySpace.

The Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues took it outside at Wrigley Field on the 31^st of December, which is a change from the usual date of January 1^st. The date change saw me more confused (Bud Lite) than usual, but I still managed to catch the first and third periods of the game.

Certain Goons who will remain nameless, however, would really like to see an event like this in Burlington, Vermont though.

Now, if I were a Blackhawk, I would start declining invites to play in this tradition full stop – in favor of whacking myself in the schnutz with a Bauer Vapor HyperLite 2.

They are now 1-6 in outdoor contests, and were absolutely embarrassed in front of their own crowd Tuesday afternoon. The only bright spot for the fans may have been the beating Hawks Captain, Nick Foligno, doled out to St. Louis Captain, Brayden Schenn.

Brayden and Jayden: Monikers Once Forsaken

No disrespect to the children or parents who named them in the last 18 years, but this is what happens. When instead of Bob, Matt, or “Tie” – you start making up modern (?) names for your kid. It’s only a matter of time before there’s an NHL netminder with the first name Daenerys.

Brayden, Hayden, Jayden, Grayden, Caden, Drayden, Tayden, Payden, Kaden and yes… even Wayden. It’s probably why the aforementioned Enforcer Lord of 2025 granted me two girls. No offense, eh? Just give me a solid “Gord” once in a while.

Foligno vs. Schenn: Likely Never Again

It all started after the Blues took a 4-1 lead in the second period. After the goal, Schenn and Foligno lined up beside one another, and can been seen talking before the puck drops. When the biscuit hits the ice, the mitts come off, and the fight is on.

Uncle Nick proceeds to give Schenn 6-7 right hands right out of the gate. I don’t want to say Schenn was begging for a left, but he may just have been tired of eating rights.

Schenn ties it up to stop the onslaught, and gets a bunch of jersey shots in on Foligno. After Nick eats a couple of those, he regains control of the bout with a few more hard rights, gets Schenn bent over, and they go to the ice.

It was a clear win for Foligno, a.k.a “Fayden”? Anyone?

Seriously, half my friends have kids named “…ayden”, and I’m going to catch a lot of shit for this.

Noteworthy is that Foligno and Schenn were previously seen talking about having a handshake after the game – during warmups. Who knew what was in store? Also, it was Schenn that asked Foligno for the fight, so they would have a nice memory of the Winter Classic!

It’s not often the guy with the 3-goal lead asks for the fight. 99.9% it is the guy whose team is getting smoked and looking to turn the tide by getting into a donny.

Schenn had this to say about the fight. “I asked him. You look back on these moments in your career and why not, eh? You’re squaring off at Wrigley Field at center ice against a tough customer. You never know if you’re going to play in another Winter Classic, so get in a fight while you’re at it. You want the memory.”

I love the mentality. Foligno was throwing punches with such anger, too. This now makes sense.

He was almost like, OK, you’re killing us on the scoreboard, and you asked me for a fight for a nice memory? How ’bout I beat the brakes off your snot box… for a memory?

This type of stuff is what makes hockey so unique. In no other sport does this ridiculous shit happen. That’s why we’re all here.

Not a sound from the pavement. Or the rink. Thanks for the 2025 Winter Classic memories, boys!

The post Oh Captain, My Captain – Winter Classic 2025 first appeared on GoonBlog.com.

Fighting Spirit: Kastelic Shines Amid Bruins’ Struggle

2024-12-31T16:01:51Z

The Ref summarized our absence earlier, so I won’t belabor the point that we have gone missing as of late.

My only excuse is the Bruins terrible start has left me in a weird state of mind. They suck… so hockey sucks (in my world, currently). Thus, I haven’t been paying attention like I usually do.

Having accepted their fate this season, I am back with a few random thoughts.

Kudos for Kastelic

Mighty Mark Kastelic is my new favorite Bruin by far, and it isn’t even close. I thought he was a nice throw-in for a crappy deal that sent Linus Ullmark to Ottawa, but he’s been the crown jewel of the shitty deal so far. The non-shit end of the stick.

Another Kastelic comeuppance – Image courtesy of Boston.com

He’s produced offensively, and he plays in the classic, the prototypical Bruin style. He’s also been willing to drop the mitts on a consistent basis. His fight against current NHL Heavyweight Champion, Mathieu Olivier, Saturday night was typical of his play thus far. Boston got blown out Friday by the Bluejackets, and after Boston went up early 1-0 at home the following night, Olivier and Kastelic tangled.

The fight was decent, and I score it a draw. Maybe Kastelic with a slight advantage because he did seem to land a couple of more shots that Olivier. I will say, Mathieu missed with an uppercut that – had it connected – they’d still be trying to Mark Kastelic off the ice, and maybe out of the rafters.

I love to see guys fighting in these situations. After a blowout loss, and going up at home early, it was time for a fight, and Mark Kastelic was there to answer the bell.

Speaking of Mathieu Olivier, he is the NHL fight leader with 8 bouts thus far. In Jim Montgomery’s last game as coach of the Bruins before he was fired, they called up Jeffery Viel in an attempt to spark something. Viel did his job by fighting Olivier, and it did not give the team the spark they thought it would.

Jeffery got smoked, the Bruins got smoked, and Montgomery was out of a job. Good on Viel for trying to take Olivier down a peg or two. Fighting for a spot with grit and brass… bells.

Calgary’s Ryan Lomberg has been involved in a couple of entertaining bouts this season. He went absolutely apeshit against Nathan Bastain of the New Jersey Devils in November and fought, you guessed it, Mathieu Olivier a couple of weeks later, and didn’t fare too terribly.

The second half of the year is shaping up to be a hockey fight filled affair. We’re starting to get to a time of the year when games start to really matter, and with that comes an uptick in emotion and tempers.

I’m interested to see what happens with guys like Trent Frederic. I don’t believe he is in Boston’s plans moving forward. Does he want to showcase his talent for another team, or will he be more willing to drop his gloves in the second half to show he can play AND fight.

Also, as guys that are coming up on expiring contracts are going to want to show teams around the league what they can do in the fisticuffs department.

Irregardless (not a word), GoonBlog will be here for what is hopefully going to be a fight filled spring!

The post Fighting Spirit: Kastelic Shines Amid Bruins’ Struggle first appeared on GoonBlog.com.

GoonBlog.com: Benched, Traded or Just Lacing Back Up?

2024-12-29T08:53:46Z

The history of our website, Goonblog.com, is a long and sordid yarn.

Also “storied“, possibly “alcohol-fueled“. And I have to assume a lot of material hasn’t “aged well“.

(Laughing as I write this because I just imagined Bennett Brauer reading those first sentences).

Admittedly… it’s been inconsistent.

So – let’s address the fact we’ve obviously lost some posting momentum this season.

And run through our history. And nobody has a gun to your head if you’d rather be watching Slapshot.

A History of Hostility

Back in the site’s 2009-2011 heyday, we were hammered with (relevant/transactional) traffic on a daily basis. Major publications linked to us regularly. Google adored us, and we even got to the point where there was a trickle of advertising, t-shirt and affiliate revenue. Almost enough for a cup of coffee every month. Top of the world, ma.

We were doing a hockey podcast, remote hockey podcasts form Boston Garden, getting into fights at Boston Garden during remote hockey podcasts, interviewing NHL enforcers in person due to a growing perception of “rink cred” – and everything was ticking along nicely. But then, something happened.

Some of us had children, some of us moved away from North Station. And after the Bruins’ Stanley Cup win in 2011, that article about the rioting in Vancouver which was picked up by a dozen big outlets, the delightful smiting of the Sedin Sisters, and that torrid tale of Tim Thomas – some of us may have even thought, “Our work is done here“.

There was never a decision, it was never discussed, but we definitely did not pick things back up in 2012.

For the next 13 years, while we did keep renewing the domain name in hopes of a “someday” kinda comeback, the site was left unattended, un-updated, and was even significantly hacked by some little prick in Malaysia.

Now, I’ve been to Malaysia. They’re good people, Kota Kinabalu is beautiful beyond words, and Beef Rendang is one of the best things I’ve ever tasted. But he made the mistake of sending me an email once, asking for money to release the site from his clutches, and I got his IP address out of the header. So, yeah, a confirmed little Malaysian prick.

Said little prick kept the site up, but anyone who came through via a Google search was first served an advertising popup window, for fucking raincoats or something, and eventually Google caught on and banished Goonblog from their results, entirely.

In that sense, the slimy little beef rendang-eating bastard shot himself in the foot, which was fun to watch. But once we decided to reboot the site, it became our (almost) insurmountable problem.

A Return to Glory? Not Quite

After finally recovering control ahead of the 2023 season (at great effort and greater expense), we were reinvigorated. Back to form in terms of strategy and content creation. If you ever have to unfuck your site, I’ve got a guy.

Again – just a labor of love we all simultaneously realized we wanted back in our lives. Now that life’s dust had settled. A bit. There is always dust.

Out of the gate there was no shortage of things to discuss. While we lost our initial excitement about Milan’s return to Beantown, we gained the ridiculous rookie season of the Rempire State Building. Then year-over-year fight frequency was on the upswing, and I even finished my best hockey movies post which had been in various stages of production since 2008.

Throughout the 2023 and 2024 season, we published nearly 40 new posts. And they were good. Relevant, original, and sticking to our collective GoonBlog credo of: write what we’d want to read. But, despite our best efforts, we stayed working in a “vacuum”, and that tends to take the piss, Schlitz and vinegar out of anyone.

Get Over It, Google

More about the vacuum: Google couldn’t get past the fact we’d once been hacked (granted, for nearly a decade). As a result, to call our organic traffic a “trickle” after 24 months and so many gleaming posts on the new and improved, unhacked, site… would be an insult to trickles, everywhere.

We have Goonbloggers who have been involved in digital marketing, SEO, and getting traffic to sites for 40 years combined. The competency was enviable in that respect. But nothing we did made a difference. And it’s reasonable to say that stubborn vacuum led to this year’s lapse in enthusiasm and output.

It was a diabolical Dyson of a disadvantage (see what I did there?).

But then, one day in early December, after none of us had touched the site in 3 months, there was what can only be described as an algorithmic search engine sea change. We got an email from the hosting company telling us our monthly bandwidth limit had been exceeded.

It was like an angel singing “Return of the Mack” in our ear.

As said, GoonBlog has always been a labor of love. For a rotating cast of 2-4 high school friends, from the mean streets of Concord, Massachusetts. And we do love it. Still.

But a month previous there had been texts around whether to keep ‘er going – or throw in the towel for good. Google finally deciding to stop being a dickhole has been a blazing North Star in terms of the future of the site.

Let’s Go With “Lacing Back Up”

The recent realization that traffic levels are suddenly back up to (and some days exceeding) our 2011 heyday is looking like the kick in a pair of discouraged pants we desperately needed.

Considering all the first time visitors now coming through the doors, a status update after a few months off was needed. The proof will be in the pudding, but Goonblog is back (again), baby.

The post GoonBlog.com: Benched, Traded or Just Lacing Back Up? first appeared on GoonBlog.com.