Earlier Tuesday I spoke to Carolina Hurricanes defenceman Tim Gleason to get his perspective on the now-famous punch on Toronto Maple Leafs forward Nikolai Kulemin.
He says he knew that it was Kulemin coming at him at the end of the first period during Carolina's 6-4 victory on Monday night.
"That's why I didn't drop my gloves at first," explained Gleason. "I was going to grab him and move on but then he threw a couple of shots to my face, so I reacted to it.
"He engaged me. I know he isn't a fighter. But if someone throws a punch at you, and then a second one, and a third...what would you do?"
The rugged Carolina blueliner insists it wasn't a cheap shot or sucker punch.
"I don't think it was at all. I've watched the replay of it 50 times. He was the one engaging in that situation, when you go into a scrum and start throwing punches. I did what I had to do."
Gleason is somewhat sympathetic to the end result and what happened to Kulemin and says he's in the process of trying to track down the Leafs forward's cell number in order to reach out to him.