Friendly off the ice, warriors on the ice. That’s the tale of hockey tough guys Marcus Foligno of the Minnesota Wild and Ryan Reaves of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the former teammates had it out in the first period of Saturday’s game between the two teams.
The fight was instigated by Foligno after Reaves made his presence felt with huge hits on Marco Rossi and Freddy Gaudreau during the same shift, with the latter sending Gaudreau to the ice in a heap after he got caught with his head down in the offensive zone.
Foligno was slightly behind the play and immediately dropped with gloves, with Reaves calmly accepting the offer before the two traded right hands in a tussle that lasted about 25 seconds before both were escorted to their respective penalty box.
REAVES vs FOLIGNO courtesy of Joe Bowen and Jim Ralph. #LeafsForever @Bonsie1951 @Jim_Ralph
14/10/2023 pic.twitter.com/2kMy8yKjyX
— LeafsJellyHD (@LeafsJelly) October 15, 2023
Foligno threw his helmet to the ice in a fiery show of emotion and then once in the box he reached into a cooler and grabbed a bag of ice for the knuckles on his right hand.
The Leafs were leading the Wild 4-2 early in the second period when this story was published.
