Milan Lucic with a vicious sucker punch to the face of Kole Sherwood.

Calgary Flames veteran forward Milan Lucic certainly was not winning over any fans in Columbus on Saturday night. 

The Flames traveled to Ohio on Saturday were they faced off against the Columbus Blue Jackets and unfortunately for the fans in attendance at Nationwide Arena there was not a great deal to cheer about on the evening. The Blue Jackets were thoroughly dominated by the Flames on the scoreboard in this one, the Flames would eventually triumph by a margin of 3 - 0, but it was likely the physical intensity of this one that truly got under the skin of the fans in Columbus.

The Blue Jackets had one of their better scoring chances early in the second period when Blue Jackets forward Kole Sherwood found himself alone in front of the net with Flames goaltender David Rittich but as he did all night Rittich shut the door. I suspect that it was the extra poke from Sherwood that got the attention of Lucic, and unfortunately for Sherwood the Flames bruiser gave him some attention right back. It was exactly the kind of attention you don't want from a player like Lucic however as it came in the form of a rather nasty looking sucker punch from Lucic, one that dropped Sherwood right down to the ice.

Lucic came flying around the net and without any warning gave Sherwood a huge leaping right hand right on the jaw, one that appeared to have a considerable amount of force behind in. The 22 year old Blue Jackets forward crumpled to the ground under the onslaught and although he turtled up on the ground Lucic followed him right down to the ice and continued to deliver several shots to the head of the defenseless Sherwood. Now ofg course this kind of intensity is exactly why you want a player like Milan Lucic in the first place, so although fans in Columbus were likely furious with the whole situation I highly suspect that fans in Calgary appreciated the nasty side of Lucic that they saw on Saturday night. 

Even after the players were separated Lucic continued to shove members of the Blue Jackets roster, acting like a bully for lack of a better word, and you could very well argue that his actions set the tone for the rest of the game at that point.