A day after their 3-2 overtime win over the New York Islanders, the Ottawa Senators seemingly brought that game intensity to practice where Chris Neil and Jason Spezza got into a skirmish.
The two forwards had a dispute during Friday's practice that saw Neil give Spezza a two-handed slash to the back of the legs, which led to Spezza returning the favour. When Neil dropped his gloves, teammates stepped in to stop it before the incident escalated.
After practice, head coach Cory Clouston downplayed the confrontation.
"That's all right," Clouston stated. "That's just intensity...they'll shake hands and make up."
When asked about the exchange with Neil, Spezza didn't know what caused it, but said he was glad that it didn't go further.
"I don't know what happened,” Spezza said. “Sometimes teammates get into it, it's no big deal.
"As soon as he dropped the gloves it was time to get out of there though"
This isn't the first time Neil has gotten into it with teammates at practice. In the past, he's had similar run-ins with Magnus Arvedson and Martin Havlat.
The incident wasn't the only news to come out of practice.
Clouston also switched up the first and second lines, by swapping Nick Foligno and Daniel Alfredsson, because there was "not enough production from our top two lines."
Jesse Winchester and Ryan Shannon were both back on the ice, but neither will play Saturday against the Atlanta Thrashers.
- With files from TSN's Ottawa reporter Brent Wallace.
