The two strapping men, in rival colors and both weighing more than 240 pounds, took aim at each others' heads with bare-knuckled blows as hordes of onlookers inside the south Philadelphia building cheered with lusty encouragement.
Blow after blow landed for nearly a half-minute. Police officers were right there to witness the frenzy. They never intervened. And no one expected they would.
Now, if that brawl was between the two ruffians outside that night, there's a fighting chance the jail would have had two new occupants.
But this is hockey, namely the National Hockey League, and that Saturday night was quite all right for fighting.
So once Philadelphia Flyer Chris Stewart and Jamie Oleksiak of the Dallas Stars were done slugging themselves to exhaustion, they collected their discarded gloves and took a five-minute break in opposite penalty boxes.
Linda Baker, who lives in south Minneapolis, wrote in to Curious Minnesota and asked, "Why is it not a crime to repeatedly punch someone in the face if you are playing professional hockey?"
On the phone later, Baker said she's baffled that fighting in the NHL is condoned and even glorified to a degree.
"I think of it as thuggery," said Baker, who is a fan of the game but hasn't been to an NHL contest since her youth.
