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Isles’ Gallant, Devils’ Barch find a way around fighting without helmets penalty

gallantbarchgetty

The NHL has its heart in the right place by trying to force players to keep their helmets on during fights, but as Puck Daddy points out, it looks like enforcers found a way around such inconveniences.

During Thursday’s preseason game, New York Islanders enforcer Brett Gallant and New Jersey Devils tough guy Krys Barch fought three times, but that wasn’t the biggest deal. Instead, the most interesting part was that the two fighters took each others’ helmets off, exposing a loophole in Rule 46.6., which hands out a two-minute misconduct if a player removes his own lid before a squabble.

It’s likely that the league will close that up soon enough, but the interesting question may be: how long will it take? (Not to mention the risks involved if both fighters aren’t in on the “deal.”)

Anyway, as a reward for all of that tedious reading, here’s the Gallant-Barch trilogy from Thursday:

Round 1:

Round 2:

Round 3:

If you need to kill some time, count the punches thrown and landed by each side.

Follow James O’Brien @cyclelikesedins