Darnell Nurse Pummeled Roman Polak in a Bloody and One-Sided Hockey Fight
By Kyle Koster
Tempers ran hot during Tuesday night’s Edmonton Oilers-San Jose Sharks game and it led to a bloody fight between Darnell Nurse and Roman Polak. Nurse got the better of the encounter, largely because Polak never dropped his gloves.
The Oilers rookie was responding to what his side believed to be a dirty hit from Polak on Matt Hendricks.
The move was greatly appreciated by the hometown newspaper.
"But while many fans, including me, might hope that the National Hockey League came down harder on fighting and on-ice violence, that’s not the reality of the league. The facts on the ice are that the NHL lets all kinds of fouling go on and often the nastiest of fouls are only punished with a slap. In that atmosphere, the law of the jungle prevails. Teams that foul, play nasty, bend and break the rules and intimidate have a decided advantage. For years, the Oilers have been prey and not predators in this world. They have been beat up, banged up, assaulted and intimated. But new Oilers players like Nurse, Zack Kassian, Eric Gryba and Patrick Maroon are starting to change that equation. They’re going after opposing players for real (and perceived) acts of violence against the Oilers. They’re starting to intimidate."
Adding penalty to injury, Polak was assessed five minutes for fighting presumably because the officiating crew subscribes to the “it takes two to tango” creed.