Bobby Farnham drew criticism from Canucks tough guy Brandon Prust after fighting a rookie. (Sportsnet)
Bobby Farnham drew criticism from Canucks tough guy Brandon Prust after fighting a rookie. (Sportsnet)

Vancouver Canucks forward Brandon Prust is out of the lineup for a few more weeks dealing with an injury. Even though he’s not on the ice with his teammates, the noted tough guy still is coming to their defense. With his Canucks playing the New Jersey Devils, things got pretty heated in the game.

Early in the second period, Devils forward Jordin Tootoo got into a spirited scrap with Canucks forward Derek Dorsett. Later in the period another fight broke out. New Jersey waiver pickup Bobby Farnham went toe-to-toe with Canucks rookie Jake Virtanen.

After the scrap, Farnham – a 26-year-old journeyman with 18 NHL games under his belt to date – Farnham went to hype up the crowd.

Tootoo actually did the same thing after his scrap, egging on the crowd to get louder. Here's a look at both Farnham and Tootoo's attempt at engaging the Prudential Center faithful.

This is what set Prust off. Normally the veteran would be challenging Farnham the rest of the game, but with him out of the lineup, his only recourse was to take to Twitter:

So needless to say, Prust was not impressed.

Farnham has a lot of experience dropping the mitts, having done it often while a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins organization playing for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in the AHL. He took the hard, bloody road to the NHL, but most vets are not too keen on experienced scrappers going with the rookies. That’s especially true of the younger rookies like Virtanen, which is why Prust was a little testy.

Virtanen is no slouch, having gotten into his fair share of bouts in the junior ranks before making the NHL this season, but fighting in the pros is a whole new ball game. The Canucks rookie actually held his own, throwing a pretty heavy punch after taking several from Farnham.

It didn’t seem that Prust was as upset with Farnham fighting Virtanen so much as it was the antics afterward. Farnham was clearly trying to get a rise out of the home crowd after the Devils blew a 3-1 lead seconds prior off of a Sven Baertschi goal. Whether it worked or not remains to be seen.

The Canucks next meet the Devils on Nov. 22. Prust won’t be able to settle the score the old fashioned way as he will still be on the shelf nursing an ankle injury. What does “The Code” say about Twitter feuds, though?