from David Staples of the Edmonton Journal,

Many fans, including Edmonton Oilers fans, were upset that Nurse would attack Polak, who it turns out had little or nothing to do with Hendricks crashing.

I saw the fight differently.

First, from Nurse’s perspective, Polak had tried to injure Hendricks, so the motivation for payback was there. No doubt, Nurse went after Polak and instigated the fight.

But while many fans, including me, might hope that the National Hockey League came down harder on fighting and on-ice violence, that’s not the reality of the league. The facts on the ice are that the NHL lets all kinds of fouling go on and often the nastiest of fouls are only punished with a slap. In that atmosphere, the law of the jungle prevails. Teams that foul, play nasty, bend and break the rules and intimidate have a decided advantage. For years, the Oilers have been prey and not predators in this world. They have been beat up, banged up, assaulted and intimated. But new Oilers players like Nurse, Zack Kassian, Eric Gryba and Patrick Maroon are starting to change that equation. They’re going after opposing players for real (and perceived) acts of violence against the Oilers. They’re starting to intimidate.

If you watched how Mark Messier and Chris Pronger on the Oilers, you’ll know just how important it is for a team to have this kind of reckless and nasty menace in the line-up, especially if that player can also play the game.

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Watch the fight below...