Brady Tkachuk and Jacob Trouba go toe to toe.
Neither man was willing to back down.
Two eligible candidates for Team Canada's men's hockey team at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing decided to get acquainted a little early.
On Saturday afternoon the New York Rangers faced off against the Ottawa Senators and it would not be long after the initial puck dropped that things would get heated between the two sides. Roughly twelve minutes had expired off the game clock when Senators forward Brady Tkachuk and Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba decided to drop the gloves to settle their differences.
It all started behind the Rangers net after Trouba managed to bump Tkachuk off the puck. The Senators forward had recovered the puck after a failed shot attempt and was attempting to skate it behind the net when he collided with the Rangers blue liner. That would have been the end of it, at least for the moment, except that almost immediately as Tkachuk regained his feet there was another shot fired off in the general direction of both players. This immediately resulted in both Trouba and Tkachuk vying for position around the net, and with neither man willing to back down the stage was set.
That served to be the spark that lit the fuse and both men immediately dropped the gloves, both seemingly eager to settle their differences with their fists. Both men swung wildly to begin the exchange but neither seemed to connect cleanly, although it did appear as though Tkachuk had an advantage when it came to being able to freely deliver his offense.
After a swing and a miss from Trouba, one that appeared to put the Rangers defenseman somewhat off balance, it was more or less all she wrote. The missed swing put Trouba in an awkward position, one that effectively forced him to turtle up and wait out the exchange. He would remain in that position until the National Hockey League's officiating crew stepped in between the two men and stopped the fight.
As Gord Stelick correctly pointed out on the broadcast, despite their differences today, both of these men could very well find themselves playing together for their home country of Canada at the next Winter Olympic Games.
