Hey Prusty, I feel like this shouldn't be something I have to tell you, seeing as it's how you made your initial mark in the NHL, but it takes two to tango. In this case those two happened to a be 19 year old kid and a 23 year old fringe NHLer trying to make enough waves to continue playing at the highest level the sport has to offer. If there is something that was uncalled for here it's Prust tellng Farnham to go back to the AHL. How quickly you forget Brandon. You weren't exactly a blue chip prospect. If I recall correctly you did quite a bit of bouncing around before you finally fought, literally and figuratively, your way onto a team's active roster as a mainstay. Pretty disingenuous to take potshots at a kid that is following nearly the same career path as you did. Obviously Prust is a more offensively gifted player than Bobby Farnham, but the point remains, at different moments in time both were using quick fists and a short temper as a way to stay in an NHL lineup. You want to discuss toughness Brandon? Remember that time you went public about a ref being a big old meanie to you? Yeah, maybe you aren't the utmost authority on unwritten rules.
So what now? 23 year old fringe NHLers aren't allowed to fight willing and able 19 year old players? This wasn't like a high school drop out bullying a random 5th grader that was walking down the street. This was a young kid, who has a history of fighting, dropping the mitts with a slightly older kid who needs to do so to stay in the league. Once you are in the NHL every player is on equal footing. If Virtanen didn't want to fight, he didn't have to. He doesn't need Poppa Prusty crying foul from the nosebleeds. The kid can handle himself. If he couldn't then he wouldn't have chosen to willingly go toe-to-toe with someone whose sole purpose is to drop the gloves. Was Bobby Farnham's celebration a little overblown and eccentric? Sure, but the entire point of that fight was to get the crowd into it and swing momentum back to the Devils after they had given up a two goal lead with the quickness. The fight accomplished just that, and it was a shining example of why it should still exist in the sport. One would think think that Brandon Prust would agree with that sentiment, but hey, maybe he has a different definition of "toughness" than the rest of us. Hopefully the director of NHL morality is healed up two weeks from now, because something tells me Bobby Farnham would love to try out his combinations on some more experienced competition.
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