Cousins missed a month and Zucker was suspended after the brutal hit during Florida's visit to Arizona on Jan. 2
Cousins missed a month and Zucker was suspended after the brutal hit during Florida's visit to Arizona on Jan. 2
Thursday night’s game between the Florida Panthers and Nashville Predators gave hockey fans one moment of enjoyment.
Those who have been following the league all season, and surely fans of the Panthers, Arizona Coyotes and perhaps some Predators fans as well, are aware of the bad blood between Nick Cousins and Jason Zucker.
It started earlier this season when the Panthers visited the Coyotes on Jan. 2.
Zucker, who was acquired by Nashville from Arizona at the Trade Deadline, did not like a hit that Cousins had just put on his teammate Juuso Valimaki during the game and immediately went after Cousins for retribution.
Zucker hit Cousins from behind and put him into the glass, after which Cousins crumped to the ice and laid on his back.
Officials deemed the hit by Zucker worthy of a five-minute major for boarding and a game misconduct.
A day later, the NHL Department of Player Safety suspended Zucker for three games for the hit.
Cousins ended up going into the concussion protocol and missed almost the entire month of January as a result.
He was still injured when Zucker and the Coyotes came to Sunrise a few weeks later, a game that was highlighted by a pair of fights in the first seven seconds, but neither of the bouts included Zucker.
There was still some unfinished business.
Well, the hockey gods gave everyone a second chance when Zucker was traded to Nashville, because guess who was in South Florida on Thursday.
That’s right, Zucker and the Predators were visiting the Panthers, and Cousins has been back in the lineup since the start of last month.
They found themselves on the ice together less than five minutes into the game and it didn’t take long after the puck was dropped for their gloves to hit the ice.
The fight did not disappoint, as both players at times saved themselves from going to the ice and they each landed several blows.
Cousins seemed to get the upper hand at the end, taking Zucker to the ground before the officials jumped in.
When it was all over, Zucker was seen with what appeared to be a bloody lip while sitting in the penalty box.
Both teams' benches were fired up after witnessing the tussle, though clearly only one was able to ride that high into a resounding win, and it wasn't the home side.
Speaking after the game, Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice commended Cousins' game on a night where he didn't have a whole lot of positive things to say about how his team performed.
"I thought Nick was good," Maurice said. "I thought he played hard. Maybe he came to the rink with little extra juice knowing what he was going to face, so good on Nick."
This will probably be the last time Cousins and Zucker see each other this season, unless Nashville and Florida meet in the Stanley Cup Final this June.
Can you imagine the bad blood that could boil over in a seven-game series of that magnitude?
Let’s hope the hockey gods are still listening.
LATEST STORIES FROM THE HOCKEY NEWS - FLORIDA
Panthers shutout by Nashville, their third straight regulation loss
Panthers making at least one lineup change ahead of Nashville game, Matthew Tkachuk 'good to go'
Panthers return to action with matchup against streaking Predators
