[Watch] Ryan Reaves exchanges bombs with Mathieu Olivier in heavyweight tilt

By ARJUN B

Modified Jan 23, 2025 02:41 GMT

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The game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday featured a heavyweight tilt between Leafs forward Ryan Reaves and Jackets forward Mathieu Olivier.

The incident occurred early in the first period as the two tough guys dropped the gloves near the neutral zone.

It looked like Reaves may have temporarily lost his balance off the opening faceoff, but he regained his footing and both players started exchanging heavy right hands. The crowd roared as Reaves and Olivier traded bombs with both landing punches to the head.

The two players went at it for nearly 40 seconds, wobbling each other with the impact of their blows. The linesmen finally intervened to break it up before any serious damage was done.

Both Ryan Reaves and Olivier were assessed fighting majors for their lengthy scrap.

Ryan Reaves' fightless season ends

Ryan Reaves went the entire season without a fight until he faced off against Mathieu Olivier of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Reaves last fought during a pre-season game against the Ottawa Senators, where he traded blows with Donovan Sebrango. His last regular-season fight dates back to April 6, 2024, when he squared off against Canadiens forward Michael Pezzetta.

In the Saturday's game against the Montreal Canadiens, Ryan Reaves tried to challenge Arber Xhekaj to a fight, but Xhekaj turned him down. The veteran player has attributed this unexpected dry spell to a lack of willing combatants on the opposing teams he has faced.

"I think a lot of it has been teams we've been playing. I said it before, we played Philly back-to-back. (Nicolas) Deslaurier was hurt. Both games that I played against New Jersey, (Kurtis) MacDermid wasn't in. And then we play him, he's in, I'm out," Reaves said on Tuesday.

"There's just not a lot of takers out there. And when we play those teams, just they haven't been in the lineup. And then in the last game, I thought for sure it was going to happen. And I guess not."

Reaves suggested that he doesn't require much practice to maintain his fighting prowess. He has over 146 fights in his 906 NHL career games.