Jay Rosehill vs Paul Bissonnette, Jan 4, 2014

Some detractors of hockey fights may call this fight “staged” — two heavyweights fighting off a faceoff, seemingly out of context of the game — but rest assured, the haymakers exhanged in Saturday's desert duel between the Flyers' Jay Rosehill and the Coyotes' Paul Bissonnette were as real and purposeful as it gets.

With his team down 3-1 in the second period, Rosehill started jousting with Bissonnette during a neutral zone faceoff. A linesman separated them, and the referee skated over to share some words with the tough guys. There have been several instances this season of players getting coinciding 10-minute misconducts for chatting and jabbing before a faceoff. In this case, the referee chose to let them go and settle it the old-fashioned way. The puck dropped, gloves and sticks followed, and these heavyweights slugged it out. Josh recapped the fight itself in this post.

Both team benches were fired up after these gunslingers were separated. Rosehill specifically yelled at the Flyers bench to get going. The Flyers responded to him by scoring four unanswered goals en route to a 5-3 victory, completing their west coast swing with four wins in five games.

Rosehill continues his trend of highly entertaining bouts. Five of his six fights this season have been rated 6 or higher by this site's viewers. For Bissonnette, it was his second fighting major of the season. Both have come against the Flyers.

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