February 9, 2013: Washington Capitals defenseman John Erskine (#4) squares off with Florida Panthers forward George Parros (#22) before fighting during their NHL ice hockey game at Verizon Center. (Photo by Clyde Caplan/clydeorama.com)
In the first fight of the season that didn’t involve middleweight Matt Hendricks, heavyweight John Erskine squared up with ultra-heavyweight George Parros in the Caps’ 5-0 win against the Panthers.
This was the third time Parros and Erskine dropped the gloves. They fought twice in October of 2005 when Erskine was with Dallas and Parros with Los Angeles.
The voters on hockeyfights.com say that Erskine won the fight (85% to 8.3%, 6.4% as a draw), but the tradeoff at the time of the game favored the Panthers since Parros is a forward who plays less than 10 minutes a game while Erskine plays a lot more.
It was also the first penalty for Erskine since coming off of his three-game suspension for elbowing Philadelphia’s Wayne Simmonds.
Mike Vogel caught up with Erskine, who told him how the fight started. “He asked me my first shift out. I said, ‘I’ll fight you, but let’s wait a few minutes.’ I just got back from suspension. I wanted to get my legs under me.”
Graphic by Garrett Cruce
