Simmonds and Mantha drop the gloves less than one minute into the game!

That did not take long.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 5 years ago
Simmonds and Mantha drop the gloves less than one minute into the game!

Everyone who tuned in to the game on Saturday between the Philadelphia Flyers and Detroit Red Wings knew that the Flyers would be out for revenge this evening. Hell some of the Flyers' players all but said as much in their post game interviews following their win over the Red Wings yesterday.

Although the Flyers picked up a big win over the Red Wings in the first game of their home and home series there was a ton of bad blood coming from the Flyers side of things because of an incident that occurred during the game's third period. During a battle for the puck along the boards Detroit Red Wings forward Anthony Mantha and Philadelphia Flyers captain Clause Giroux found themselves tangled up and that resulted in Giroux falling to the ice on his knees. 

In what has to be called an uncharacteristic play on the part of Mantha, the young Red Wings forward took advantage of a very vulnerable Claude Giroux and drove his head hard into the boards while he was already down on his knees. It was a rather vicious looking play and many were quick to call for Mantha to be suspended for the rather deliberate blow to the head of a vulnerable opponent, but the Flyers would get no justice. Not only did the National Hockey League's Department of Player Safety determine that the play did not warrant a review, but the NHL officials that were on the ice at the time missed the call as well. To add insult to injury Mantha would go on to score the tying goal in the third period just moments later, forcing an overtime frame that the Flyers would eventually win.

It was for that reason that the Flyers were out looking for vengeance early and off just the second face off of the game powerful Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds made himself known. The Flyers big man immediately challenged Mantha who to his credit accepted the challenge without hesitation, and the two men began to trade blows. Simmonds seemed to largely dominate the battle while Mantha appeared to be more interested in minimizing the damage Simmonds could dish out than he was in returning punches of his own.

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