Brad Marchand has enough of Filip Hronek and drops the gloves!

Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand is arguably the best agitator in the entire National Hockey League. The Bruins pest has made a career out of his ability to get under the skin of his opponents, regardless of who that opponent may be, but that does not mean that Marchand is immune to getting annoyed himself. 

On Friday night the Boston Bruins faced off against the Detroit Red Wings and it was during that contest that we witnessed one of the rare instances of a player getting under the skin of the Bruins agitator. Surprisingly it was a relatively young player that caused Marchand to lose his cool this time around, 22 year old Detroit Red Wings defenseman Filip Hronek, although you could certainly make the argument that it was Marchand who started the whole situation. 

Hronek was playing the puck behind the Red Wings net when Marchand thought he saw an opportunity to line up the Red Wings blue liner for a big hit along the end boards. The hit never came however due to the fact that Hronek was also very aware of what was going on resulting in him sidestepping the hit from Marchand, a move that caused Marchand to launch himself into the boards. Hronek wasn't done there however and he gave Marchand an extra shot for good measure, and that was when things started to heat up between the two men. 

They would continue to jostle in front of the Red Wings net as the play continued, with both men taking liberties at the others expense throughout their little isolated battle. In spite of the fact that there were no particularly nasty shots exchanged between the two men it was more than enough to get under the skin of Marchand who quickly dropped his gloves and then began throwing blows at Hronek's head. Marchand did not wait for Hronek to get his gloves off however and although he did throw some shots at the Red Wings defenseman, none of them really seemed to connect with any serious degree of force. The remainder of the battle between the two men was merely jostling for position, although it did seem as though Marchand was able to muscle the bigger man down to the ice.