The Nashville Predators returned home from their five-game road trip with only one win to once again find themselves at the bottom of the NHL standings.
On Friday at practice, those frustrations boiled over and there was an incident between forwards Michael McCarron and Luke Evangelista.
During a 2-on-2 drill near the end of practice, the two had to be separated following a physical altercation. No punches were thrown, but there was a shoving match between players after a hard hit during the drill.
We have our first practice dust up. Michael McCarron and Luke Evangelista.
Wasn’t a huge fight but it was not friendly. pic.twitter.com/RSHPU9qnXI
— Alex Daugherty (@AlexDaugherty1) November 22, 2024
Both players skated away after the incident, though the two exchanged more unfriendly words following the end of practice.
McCarron was the first to leave practice and was unavailable for comment. Evangelista expressed regret for the incident after practice.
“We were doing the corner battle drill, but yeah I probably shouldn’t have done that. (McCarron’s) a good dude,” Evangelista said.
Evangelista, who was healthy scratched for the first time this season on Wednesday, said his frustrations about not playing in the loss against Seattle got the better of him.
“Just trying to practice hard and compete, trying to find my way back in the lineup. But I don’t want to get anyone hurt, just let my emotions get to me a little bit.”
After practice, coach Andrew Brunette addressed the incident.
“When you’re not feeling it like we are, there’s going to be some frustrations,” Brunette said. “That’s where we are at. It’s boys being boys, kind of old time hockey. It’s emotional, it’s an emotional game.”
Hockey skirmishes are uncommon at practice, though they do happen on occasion. There was one at a Predators practice in 2018 between Roman Josi and Craig Smith.
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