Ryan reveals why he punched good friend and former teammate Turris in the face!

Former teammates Bobby Ryan and Kyle Turris made headlines last night as they dropped the gloves and had a good, old fashioned dust up midway through the Ottawa Senators’ 4-3 win over the Nashville Predators.

This is particularly interesting, of course, because the two players were teammates for years with the Senators, before Turris was traded to the Preds last season as part of the three way deal to get Matt Duchene in Ottawa. In any case, the two didn't seem to show any indication that they were teammates or good friends last night. The pair roughed each other up for a moment before dropping the gloves and going at it.

You can see the full sequence of events in the video above. 

On Tuesday, Ryan finally explained why he decided to drop the gloves against his former teammate and good friend as he was asked by media members if anything needed to get settled between the two men. 

“I had no issues with [Turris]. You’re not always as close with people you play with all the time. I wouldn’t say we were overly close, but we were cordial that’s for sure,” said Ryan. “Never had any issues, so there’s nothing to read into.”

“Not for me or him, no. Nothing needed to be settled,” he added.

However, Turris, who refused to comment on the altercation, did something that pushed Ryan to respond, leading to the spirited fight. 

“I didn’t like the slash. He knows the history, right? He’s been here,” Ryan said. “I felt like he got me right on the finger. So I gave him a whack and he gave me a whack. We just traded back and forth until it became more.”

Ryan missed action countless times over the course of the past years due to many broken bones in his hand. On top of that, Ryan just returned to the Sens lineup last week after missing a week with a concussion. His reasoning for punching former teammate Turris does not seem to make a whole lot of sense and media members noticed and made sure to investigate some more. 

“You get caught up in what’s going on, the emotion that’s happening and then the adrenaline kicks in. The hands and concussion were the last thing on my mind,” said Ryan. “You can feel that energy in the building. It’s a very cool thing to have people excited about something like that. It’s a different part of the game that I don’t do much, so to feel differently about it was fun.”

In the end, Ryan maintains that the two men are still friends and added that they were exchanging holidays pleasantries when television cameras caught the two veterans jawing at each other from the penalty box after their second-period fight. 

“It was Christmas greetings. I asked what the kids and wife are doing. He asked the same of me,” joked Ryan. “No – it was just continuing the emotion of the fight.”

You can see all of Ryan's explanations in the video here below: