The gloves dropped before the puck did Friday night.
Ryan Hand of the Texas Brahmas and Brett Clouthier of the Allen Americans couldn't even wait for the their teams' CHL playoff clash to begin before throwing punches.
Hand and Clouthier threw down during the ceremonial puck drop prior to the start of Game 4 on Friday night, leading to each player earning an unsportsmanlike conduct minor penalty at 0:00 of the first period.
The beef didn't stop there, though, as the two — who have a history of throwing down — squared off again upon leaving the penalty box.
It was certainly a bizarre scene at the NYTEX Sports Centre, but perhaps a new tradition has been started: the ceremonial glove drop. Consider me among the supporters.
Check out the pregame dust-up in the video below, with a hat tip to Yahoo's Puck Daddy blog for pointing it out.
