Ryan Reaves challenges Adam Lowry on the face off, but Lowry shows no fear.

We know we're a little late on this one but given the events that unfolded on Saturday evening involving Ottawa Senators forward Scott Sabourin and Boston Bruins forward David Backes we did not have much time to get around to this story when it happened in real time.

On that very same night the Winnipeg Jets faced off against the Las Vegas Golden Knights and the game featured what likely was in the moment one of the most highly anticipated tilts of the entire season between Golden Knights enforcer Ryan Reaves and Winnipeg Jets big man Adam Lowry. The battle between the two men was no casual encounter either and was instead the result of a rather ugly hit from Lowry on Las Vegas Golden Knights forward Alex Tuch.

Now to be clear here although I will be heaping some praise on Lowry for his willingness to defend himself against one of the most feared men in the entire National Hockey League in this article, the hit on Tuch was clearly a bad one. Lowry caught the streaking Golden Knights forward up high with a big time hit that has since knocked Tuch out of action with what many have speculated is a concussion, speculation that has only gained more credence after some of the moves announced by the Golden Knights on Monday morning. To be clear Tuch deserves a big share of the blame as he had his head way down when the contact came in, but Lowry also could probably have done a better job of pulling up on this one to avoid the head contact on Tuch.

Regardless of how you feel about the ugliness of this incident though the one thing that is clear is that the Golden Knights were having none of it, and good for them for standing up for one of their own. The result was that on the ensuing face off the Golden Knights lined up the aforementioned Reaves to take the draw against Lowry, a move clearly designed to intimidate and goad Lowry into a fight with Reaves. Although the Jets attempted to make a change when they saw what was happening Lowry would have none of it and instead stood up to the feared Reaves and performed admirably while doing so. 

You can check out the whole thing in the video below.