Teammates often disagree at practice, but today Phil Kessel and David Booth got into a bit of a tussle at practice. It appears to have began during a drill involving powerplay and penalty kill units.
Check out the video:
Practice fight: Booth-Kessel going at it ... wow
— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) March 27, 2015 Booth-Kessel go at it in practice... no punches but lots of pushing
— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) March 27, 2015 Teammates had to separate Kessel-Booth... was during PP-PK drill... Phil fired up
— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) March 27, 2015 Phil Kessel and David Booth just had a wrestling match at #leafs practice. And they weren't goofing around.
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) March 27, 2015 There weren't any big punches thrown in the Kessel-Booth dustup, but tempers were running hot and #leafs teammates had to separate them.
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) March 27, 2015 Toronto Sun writer Terry Koshan wrote about it as well.
A losing season can make tempers run hot. Did Booth jump on the "Kessel doesn't give a shit" bandwagon? That seems like something that could set him off easily at this point.
Of course I'm just speculating on rumours and items that aren't too surprising with how this season has gone.
You generally won't see players fight on a winning streak. Booth needs a contract next year, and others do as well, so they need this last few games to matter to them.
Is this the last we'll see of it?
Update: Twitter is awesome.
— Jonny Hockey (@YakovMironov) March 27, 2015