Matt Martin

Matt Martin and Erik Gudbranson settled their beef with a flurry of heavy punches

Published Dec. 9, 2016 12:22 p.m. ET

Pete Blackburn

Heading into Saturday's Canucks-Maple Leafs game in Vancouver, it was expected that things would get a bit nasty. The two teams don't exactly like each other and, considering what happened last time they met, there were scores to settle.

Back in the beginning of November, they racked up a combined 110 penalty minutes in a heated affair. Leafs forward Matt Martin didn't make himself any friends when he fought Canucks rookie Troy Stecher, who is much smaller than Martin. After that game, Stecher's teammate Erik Gudbranson was clearly furious with Martin and said that the Leafs tough guy was "[expletive] dead."

So it was no surprise when Martin and Gudbranson dropped the gloves and went at it in the second period of Sunday's game, and the result was a pretty good tilt. Gudbranson looked to have the advantage in the early going but Martin made a statement with a furious flurry of punches before a linesman was able to step in.

In the end, the beef looked to be settled the old fashioned way. Both guys dropped the gloves and let their fists do the talking, and did so without throwing any cheap shots or causing more drama. Most importantly, Martin finished the game without the whole "being dead" thing, so that's a big win for him.

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