10 Best NHL Player Fights from Overseas During the NHL Lockout

Fans of the reigning champion Los Angeles Kings and other teams that had a particularly memorable 2012 Stanley Cup playoff are not alone in one of their topmost causes for frustration over the NHL lockout.

Crossover hockey and boxing or wrestling fans are also left to assume they are missing out on what might have been a followup on a 2012 tournament that featured an astonishing 19 fights. That includes a multitude involving the Nashville Predators, New York Rangers and Phoenix Coyotes as well as more than one within the Philadelphia-Pittsburgh, St. Louis-San Jose and Los Angeles-St. Louis matchups.

Along with the better part of the NHL-caliber hockey talent, much of that extracurricular activity has fallen back on the KHL and other top leagues overseas.

Through the first three months of the 2012-13 season, the top 10 emotional eruptions and resultant scraps involving a would-be NHL player are ranked as follows.

10. Gabriel Landeskog

Buried somewhere in this congested, but relatively contained crowd is the reigning Calder Trophy winner at the conclusion of a late October game in his native Sweden.

There are reasons why this clip is at the bottom of the top 10 here, but the energetic and physical Landeskog is at least proving that he is keeping his fervor in shape along with his skill set.

9-8. Logan Couture and Yannick Weber

They were not the central figures, but they were involved in this 12-man skirmish between the Swiss League’s HC Lugano and Geneva-Servette HC. The latter team is employing both of the two players in question.

In turn, the San Jose Sharks’ Couture and the Montreal Canadiens’ Weber are a two-for-one of would-be NHL players getting involved in extracurricular activity amidst overseas hockey action.

7. Alex Steen

Look for Steen, wearing No. 20 in red for MoDo, when the video gets to about the 32-second mark.

In a multi-skirmish convention in the far corner, and he is the first to emerge after he and his dance partner each fall to the ice. Afterward, he continues to give his tongue a strenuous workout as he is escorted away from the scene and additional scraps carry on elsewhere.

6. Nik Antropov

As far as his hockeyfights.com profile can tell, Antropov had not tossed his mitts since before the last NHL lockout, his previous tangle occurring in preseason action prior to the 2003-04 campaign.

All things considered, when he engaged Martin Stajnoch in the second fight to occur in this KHL game, Antropov did not reek of wrestling rust in the least. After all, he stayed on his skates and remained helmeted while Stajnoch had his lid dislodged and his knees tugged down to ice level.

5. Wayne Simmonds

Especially after last season, a Flyer can certainly get used to fighting a Penguin, even if it is of the Fischtown variety. Starting at about the two-minute mark of the video, Simmonds verifies that exact notion, feverishly subduing his combating counterpart in a matter of 10 seconds.

The loss of his jersey in the process was inadvertently prophetic, as Simmonds has since shuffled from Germany to the Czech Republic to keep himself busy during the lockout.

4. Andrei Markov

This 30-second struggle with Max Spiridonov stemmed from a stick swing to the backside and the veteran Montreal defenseman’s retaliatory whack to the right leg. It is kind of hard to blame either party for losing his cool after that.

3. Derek Dorsett

Dorsett was last seen in NHL action with the Columbus Blue Jackets, whom he easily led with 235 penalty minutes in 2011-12. His energy level in this fairly one-sided scrap seen above would make one think he was playing (or at least brawling) on his Red Bull Salzburg team’s sponsor product.

2. Chris Stewart

Post-whistle pushing precipitated this presentation of pugilism, beginning at about the 75-second mark of the clip and lasting about 20 seconds.

Although that makes for a relatively brief bout, Stewart―ordinarily of the Blues but temporarily of Eispiraten Crimmitschau―had no difficulty inciting his home crowd by decisively overwhelming his opponent. Barely five seconds elapsed between the first sudden movement and Stewart pulling the sweater up and pinning the skater down.

1. Tom Sestito

At about the three-minute mark of this highlight package, the would-be Flyer serves up some rough stuff for another orange-and-black fanbase, namely that of the Sheffield Steelers. This dustup with Greg Stewart of the Belfast Giants constituted a part of a Gordie Howe Hat Trick in Sestito’s British Elite League debut, in which he also had a hand in both goals to decide a 2-1 victory.