Tony DeAngelo appeared to start it, nine minutes into the second period at Crypto.com Arena on Thursday. Corey Perry, who is 41 and has been doing this since 2005, was happy to be asked.
Both men took five minutes for fighting. Only one of them looked like he’d had a nice time.
Perry skated to the penalty box laughing, with the expression of a man who had just been handed a present.
Supporters felt much the same way about it.
“Vintage Perry, you gotta love it,” one wrote. “I can never hate on Perry,” said another.
A third noticed something else entirely: “I understand Perry is old and a rat, but I always forget how big the guy is. What a unit.”
Thursday night in Los Angeles:
| Period | Time | Penalties each | Final score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2nd | 9:02 | 5 minutes | Islanders 5-2 |
Why did Corey Perry and Tony DeAngelo fight?
March 2023, Amalie Arena. DeAngelo was in Philadelphia then and Perry was in Tampa Bay, and DeAngelo skated into a scrum well after the whistle and drove his stick into Perry’s groin, putting him on the ice.
He was given a major and a game misconduct, then suspended two games by the Department of Player Safety, which described the spear as premeditated and delivered to an unsuspecting opponent.
DeAngelo’s explanation afterwards was that Perry had been avoiding him.
“I asked him to fight, he doesn’t want to fight,” DeAngelo told reporters. “He’ll tell you that he’s asked me to fight for years. I don’t say no.”
The two clubs didn’t meet again that season, and both men have changed teams twice since. On Thursday the invitation was finally accepted, and it was DeAngelo who ended up regretting the arrangement.
Perry has a Stanley Cup from 2007, a Hart Trophy from 2011, and a reputation built on being the most irritating man on any sheet of ice he stands on. He turned 41 in May.
The hockey went the other way. Kyle Palmieri and the New York Islanders beat the Los Angeles Kings 5-2, with Ilya Sorokin considerably busier than Darcy Kuemper and rather more successful with it.
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