Tampa Bay Lightning: Top 5 Fights Of The 2015-16 Season

4. Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Montreal Canadiens

Date: February 9, 2016

Lightning forward Cedric Paquette vs. Canadiens defenseman Nathan Beaulieu

Next up on the fight card is Tampa Bay Lightning forward Cedric Paquette. On February 9, 2016, he takes on Nathan Beaulieu of the Montreal Canadiens. This match had more of the old-world hockey feel to it as they first circled each other with fists raised until Paquette lunged at Beaulieu to grab his jersey and then things began to happen.

Tampa Bay Lightning

Beaulieu had the presence of mind to hold Paquette at arm’s length to keep him from landing a solid blow as they kept trading shots at each other. At one point after Paquette had attempted an uppercut, Beaulieu unleashed 3 hits in succession with the second one knocking Paquette’s shield off of his helmet.

Moments after this Paquette briefly hung his head, at which point the officials chose to stop the altercation. This is not one of those fights where it could be said that Paquette came out of it victoriously though, as Nathan managed to shatter Cedric’s visor resulting in delivering a cut to his left cheek.

Of interest in this scrap is that this altercation came about in reaction to what seemed to be a minor hit by Paquette hit on a different Canadiens player moments before, of which Beaulieu took issue with. There have been several times this season where a fight quickly broke out in reaction to what was perceived as an opponent playing too aggressively.

That’s two broken visors occurring in separate fights in this article, and each player received injuries from the visor. Perhaps there is something that needs to be looked at regarding how they seem to shatter and injure the player that’s wearing it?

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