St. Louis Blues rookie forward Robby Fabbri is a goal scorer. It’s what made him successful in junior, it’s why he was a first-round NHL draft pick and it’s also why he has a spot on the Blues roster right now. He has great hands for making plays, but he’s not often one to ball those hands into fists and fight someone.
However, early in the first period of Sunday night’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Fabbri found himself in the first fight of his NHL career. The guy who wanted him to drop the gloves was another skill player, Vladislav Namestnikov, who actually already had two NHL fights to his name prior to throwing down with Fabbri.
The Blues rookie held his own for a bit there, even as Namestnikov was throwing haymakers early. Then Fabbri learned a valuable lesson: Always tie your jersey down, because if it’s not, the other guy is totally pulling it over your face.
Most jerseys come with tie-down straps and Fabbri apparently neglected to do that on his, so he ended up having to throw some blind punches as Namestnikov pulled the jersey over Fabbri’s head. We don’t see the ol' jerseying too often anymore due to that nifty little jersey tie.
The somewhat amazing thing about this scrap is that even after the jersey was over his head, Fabbri landed about three punches on Namestnikov. Still, the Lightning forward got the decision and had the extra bonus of the bewildered looks on his teammate’s faces after the scrap from the bench.
By the way, Fabbri ended up using his hands the way that got him to the NHL later in the game. He scored the game’s opening goal on a breakaway just 36 seconds into the second period, but ended up falling an assist shy of his first Gordie Howe Hat Trick.
The Blues won the game 2-1.
[H/T @hockeyfights]