The 9 Most Infamous NHL Line Brawls Since 2000

It's no secret that they're not everyone's cup of tea.

But it's undeniable that fighting is among the things that make hockey, well...hockey.

And every now and then, teams like the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils take it up a notch with a good, old-fashioned line brawl just seconds after the opening puck drop that yielded eight player ejections and most of the game's 162 first-period penalty minutes.

Devils defenseman Kurtis MacDermid labeled it a "team bonding" experience and expressed respect for his one-on-one dance partner, New York rookie Matt Rempe, whose hit on New Jersey's Jonas Siegenthaler in a game several weeks ago was the catalyst for the scrap.

Love or loathe them, fights became the focus of the the B/R hockey team in the aftermath and the group put together a chronological list of the most infamous line brawls since the calendar flipped to 2000, considering the intensity of the scrums among other factors.

Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought of your own in the comments.

It's hard to make a list of infamous line brawls without the battle royal that established a record for penalty minutes (419) in an NHL game.

Just eight days after a game in which Philadelphia's Mark Recchi was high-sticked in the head by Ottawa's Martin Havlat, the Flyers and Senators got back together in a contest that was tame by comparison until a bout between noted tough guys Donald Brashear (Philadelphia) and Rob Ray (Ottawa) with just less than two minutes remaining.

Ray emerged bloody and Brashear was headed toward the bench when he became engaged with Ray's teammates Todd Simpson and Brian Pothier. Philadelphia's Patrick Sharp and Danny Markov quickly tangled with Simpson, triggering a full-on pier-6'er that sparked an always memorable goalie fight between Patrick Lalime and Robert Esche.

Penalties were cataloged and the game restarted but the fists weren't done flying, with Senators big men Chris Neil and Zdeno Chara dropping gloves with Flyers seconds after the puck drop. That series of bouts led to another restart and another flare-up, this time with Philadelphia's Recchi and John LeClair headlining the marquee and prompting the game to end with just a handful of non-ejected players remaining on the benches.

Oh, by the way...the Flyers won 5-3.

Brawl No. 2 is similar in that it occurred shortly after a game between the two teams—Colorado and Vancouver—that involved a hit from one that yielded revenge from the other.

But its impacts are far more lasting.

Avalanche rookie Steve Moore was not penalized for a check on Markus Naslund in a February 11 game that left the Canucks captain with facial cuts and a minor concussion. A few weeks later, on March 8, Moore had scored a goal in a game Colorado led 8-2 in the third period when he was accosted from behind by Vancouver's Todd Bertuzzi.

Bertuzzi, a 6'3", 229-pound winger, grabbed Moore's jersey and came around with a gloved punch to the 6'2', 209-pound center's jaw, sending him face-first to the ice with Bertuzzi on top. The punches prompted Avalanche center Andrei Nikolishin to intervene and create a dogpile at center ice while sparking several other fights, as well as coach sniping between Tony Granato and Marc Crawford.

Moore remained down as trainers came to his aid and a stretcher was summoned.

Announcers on the Canucks broadcast suggested the score-settling had "gone too far" and Moore's fate was evidence. He was diagnosed to have suffered fractured neck vertebra, a concussion and cuts and never played another NHL game, while Bertuzzi was suspended for the rest of the season and the subsequent playoffs.

First there was a Dustin Byfuglien scoring chance. Then there was a Roberto Luongo save. And as a result, a notorious 2009 line brawl between Chicago and Vancouver was born.

Byfuglien responded to the save with a subtle shot to Luongo's mask that drew a goaltender interference penalty and instigated a brawl that yielded 12 additional penalties, six 10-minute misconducts, and a memorable scrap between Alex Burrows and Duncan Keith.

Why is it memorable, you ask? Well, it's because of the hair pull, of course.

Yes...we said hair pull.

Keith gathered the Canucks forward into a headlock, to which Burrows responded by reaching up and grabbing onto the Blackhawks defenseman's majestic flow, not letting go until the two had tumbled to the ice.

It's something Keith said he'd not experienced, even as a child.

"That's not something I've ever had happen to me," he told Yahoo Sports. "My little sister never even pulled my hair when I was a kid. It's kind of comical when you have a grown man trying to pull your hair on the ice."

Another one that started days before and percolated with smaller incidents during the rematch game went to full-on brawl status when Pittsburgh's Maxime Talbot was targeted at center ice by Matt Martin a few minutes into the second period.

Officials intervened to prevent that collision from escalating, but they couldn't cover all the bases as three supplemental scraps involving New York's Josh Bailey, Travis Hamonic and Matt Martin alongside Pittsburgh's Pascal Dupuis, Mike Rupp and Deryk Engelland.

All six were ejected and the temperature cooled for a while, but it spiked again at the start of the third when Pittsburgh's Eric Tangradi was sent to the ice by Trevor Gillies.

Gillies was soon ejected but continued to chirp at Tangradi as he left the ice, prolonging an enmity that ultimately included New York's Michael Haley getting involved with Pittsburgh goalie Brent Johnson.

All told, the game ended with 65 penalties, 15 fighting majors and 21 misconducts, yielding a prodigious total of 346 minutes—establishing single-game records for both teams.

There's nothing like the angst created by a Game 7 loss.

The Boston Bruins skated the Stanley Cup around the home ice of the Vancouver Canucks in the spring of 2011, so it's no surprise that their return bout at Boston's TD Garden the following January flared up just four minutes in.

Some not-so-subtle stickwork between Boston's Shawn Thornton and Vancouver's Alex Burrows in front of the Canucks bench led to Thornton leaping in with a punch.

That prompted Burrows' on-ice teammates to jump in, Thornton's colleagues as well, and additionally drew the bench-leaving ire of Bruins tough guy Milan Lucic, who, after putting Kevin Bieksa in a front face lock, was instantly ejected.

Dale Weise and Nathan Horton set off in their own main event from the bench-side rumble, doing a lap of the Vancouver zone in a prolonged scrap. The official math yielded a 5-on-3 power play for the Canucks and two 10-minute misconducts in addition to Lucic's game exit.

It was certainly memorable.

But the recent Rangers-Devils game-starting line brawl wasn't their first.

In fact, last week's sequel came nearly 12 years to the day after a 2012 original that kicked off with big-boy bouts that matched Ryan Carter against Stu Bickel, Cam Janssen against Brandon Prust, and Eric Boulton against Michael Rupp, and was affectionately dubbed "Fight Night at the Garden."

New York coach John Tortorella (yes, him) was spotted yelling toward New Jersey's Pete DeBoer as players arrived at the bench to begin the game, having seen the Devils' opening lineup. Tortorella changed his own would-be lineup to counter DeBoer's list.

The game-opening fights were the ninth, 10th and 11th of the season across six games between the rivals, five of which included multiple fights. The Rangers wound up laying out 41 hits to New Jersey's 23 for the balance of the game on the way to a 4-2 win, but the Devils laughed last two months later—defeating top-seeded New York in a six-game series in the Eastern Conference finals.

There are goalie fights. And then there are goalie beatdowns.

The November 2013 scrap involving Philadelphia's Ray Emery and Washington's Braden Holtby most certainly belongs in the latter category.

Wayne Simmonds and Tom Wilson were already engaged in a pretty good, albeit predictable fight between big men when Emery, perhaps bored in his crease at the other end of the ice, barreled 200 feet straight toward an apparently unsuspecting Holtby, who backed away as officials closed in.

Undeterred, Emery began firing blows as Holtby scrambled in retreat. Multiple right hands landed as Holtby's long hair flailed and it didn't end until the Capitals goalie was flat on his back.

Meantime, several other fights ensued as the clock wound down on a 7-0 Washington win, though color analyst Steve Coates suggested it was a good thing for the losing side, saying on the Comcast Sports Net broadcast that "this is the fire that the Flyers have been looking for."

Once you get to this point on a list, you need a tiebreaker.

John Tortorella is that tiebreaker.

He's working on his latest reclamation project these days in Philadelphia, but it wasn't long ago that the vagabond coach was working his magic with the Vancouver Canucks.

And though the stay ended abruptly after just one 36-35-11 season in 2013-14, "Torts" provided a memorable snippet during a January 2014 game against the Calgary Flames at Rogers Arena.

A five-on-five brawl ensued after Calgary coach Bob Hartley sent a brawny lineup out to take the opening faceoff, and the instant scrum resulted in memorable video of Tortorella leaning over the boards to give Hartley and the rest of the Flames bench a verbal piece of his mind.

Nothing of significance occurred for the rest of the opening period but the rage meter spiked soon after, when Tortorella U-turned while taking his between-periods walk to the home dressing room and tried to get to the Calgary room and get his hands on Hartley.

He got within a couple steps of the door before players and on-ice officials steered him away, and he was later suspended for 15 days, which amounted to six games in which the Canucks went 2-4-0.

Hartley, for his role, was fined $25,000.

It's the Battle of Alberta. So, a little firefight now and then is to be expected.

But Edmonton's Mike Smith and Calgary's Cam Talbot, each of whom had participated in the rivalry while wearing the opposite uniform, did their best to kick it up a notch.

Oilers forward Sam Gagner lit the fuse when he dove toward Talbot's crease to take a poke at a loose puck, prompting Calgary defenseman Mark Giordano—along with Talbot and other flaming-C clad teammates—to instantly pile on the spunky 5'11", 200-pound forward.

Ethan Bear and Matthew Tkachuk squared off in a spirited bout amid the other scrums, but the buzz at the Saddledome spiked as Smith skated dramatically toward center ice and stood there with his chin on his stick. Talbot took the bait with a slow burn of his own, dumping his gloves as he casually approached Smith and quickly engaged in a series of alternating right hands.

The fight lasted barely 10 seconds before a Smith right drove Talbot to the ice, and the Oilers, though few remember it, won the game 8-3.