Defenseman Jon Merrill certainly wasn’t planning on engaging in his first career fight when the Golden Knights hosted the Ottawa Senators on Sunday evening.
“It was just spur of the moment,” he said after the game sporting a black eye as result of a series of left hands landed by Mark Borowiecki. “I was just trying to be there for my teammate.”
Merrill immediately sought out Borowiecki after the bruising Senators’ defenseman had delivered a big blow to the head of Knights’ forward Cody Eakin in the first period.
He certainly didn’t cherry-pick his opponent.
The bout was a bit of a mismatch in terms of experience as Borowiecki is approaching 50 fights in his NHL career, according to hockeyfights.