To qualify as a “good” hockey fight, fisticuffs in the NHL must meet a few basic requirements. A good hockey fight has free-swinging and multiple landed punches. The helmets must be off. It must last more than 20 seconds. And neither participant should look ridiculous while throwing punches.
Coyotes vs. Blue Jackets: Summers and MacKenzie fight, waste everyone’s time
Bad job, bad effort.
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The fight in the video above meets none of those requirements, and therefore should be considered one of the worst fights of the year.
The offenders: Coyotes defenseman Chris Summers and Blue Jackets forward Derek MacKenzie. It's not quite clear why this fight even took place. Summers apparently was angry at his stick for hurting MacKenzie so he punished it by hitting it against MacKenzie again. MacKenzie misunderstood this and the two fought. This is the only explanation I can come up with.
The actual “fighting” portion of this fight was delayed as the two grasped each other and wrestled a bit. When they finally started exchanging punches, neither really could land anything. In fact, MacKenzie probably separated his shoulder trying to throw overhand punches that didn’t even come close to hitting Summers. The referees mercifully didn’t let this one last any longer.
Good grief.
