NBCSN calls its Wednesday lineup of NHL games “Wednesday Night Rivalry.” And while sometimes the word rivalry is used loosely, Wednesday’s opener between the Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks is definitely a rivalry. And it showed early on.

With the Kings leading 1-0, Sharks forward Joe Thornton put out a perfect pass to teammate Logan Couture, who scored via slapshot and tied the game at one. But what followed was surely more interesting, as a fight broke out involving Los Angeles goalie Jonathan Quick.

It’s hard to tell what exactly set Quick off… until you see this replay angle which makes it clear that Quick was set off by San Jose captain Joe Pavelski (and Pavelski then went running for his life).

Oddly enough, Pavelski was on the same team with Quick just weeks ago at the World Cup of Hockey. Maybe there’s some tension over Team USA’s poor showing at the tournament.

With most situations like this, teammates quickly get involved. By the end of it, Quick and Couture are going at it, which seems fitting since Couture scored the goal that set off the brouhaha and Quick was the first one to get involved.

This also doesn’t seem surprising given the history between these two teams. San Jose knocked out the Kings in the first round of the 2016 playoffs. Before that, L.A. had consistently had the Sharks’ number, including a Kings comeback from 3-0 down in the 2014 playoffs.

While fighting isn’t always the greatest thing, opening night has to be a success based off the fact we saw a goalie get involved in a fight.

About Ryan Williamson

Ryan is a recent graduate of the University of Missouri and has recently returned to his Minnesota roots. He previously has worked for the Columbia Missourian, KFAN radio in Minneapolis and BringMeTheNews.com. Feel free to email me at rwilliamson29 AT Gmail dot com.