McLeod and Mayfield drop the gloves in preseason action.

To absolutely no one's surprise the battle between the New York Rangers and the New York Islanders on Saturday night got rather physical rather quickly in spite of the fact that it was a relatively meaningless preseason contest. 

That being said the long time rivalry between the two organizations as well as perhaps a desire for two tough guys to demonstrate their usefulness to their respective franchises resulted in things turning ugly after just a few minutes of play. Less than halfway through the game's very first period both newly acquired Rangers' enforcer Cody McLeod and veteran Islanders defenseman Scott Mayfield began trash talking back and force at the face off circle. 

The broadcast crew noticed the back and forth immediately but it did not sound like they expected the two men to dance and to be honest with you neither did I. McLeod is one of the most well known enforcers in the National Hockey League and although Scott Mayfield may be a tough guy in his own right he certainly does not fall into the same category as McLeod when it comes to dropping the gloves at the NHL level. As the broadcast correctly pointed out during the fight itself only two players had more fights than McLeod last season in the NHL and that becomes particularly impressive when you realize the man appeared in fewer than 50 games over the ocurse of the regular season.

Unfortunately for Mayfield his decision to engage McLeod may not have been a wise one as he seemed to take the worst of the punishment, although he may have in fact hurt McLeod, if albeit unintentionally. After the two men had squared off and multiple punches had been thrown on either side it looked like McLeod was actually the one who was suffering the most discomfort, although it was not due to a blow that he suffered from Mayfield. Instead McLeod appeared to be looking at and flexing his hand while wincing in pain, perhaps indicating that one of the punches he landed had caused more damage to his hand than to the part of Mayfield that he connected with.

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