Horton/By S. Bradley

Considering he only had six career regular-season fighting majors in the NHL when he arrived with the Bruins this season, and he hadn’t recorded a fight since November 2007, Nathan Horton wasn’t expected to bring much punch beyond his offensive contributions to the Bruins.

Well, during his first season in black and gold he turned those expectations right on their head with seven fighting majors during the regular season and one more in the playoffs. Horton’s first year in a traditional hockey market brought out the “old-time hockey” player in him.

Someone with such a short resume of fights, however, doesn’t usually show up on a year-end list of the best brawls. But today Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo! Sports revealed his top 10 fights of 2010-11 from the NHL and beyond, and ranked at No. 10 was Horton throwing down with Ottawa’s Zack Smith late in the season.

About the bout, Wyshynski writes:

This fight was memorable for a few reasons: The sense of danger as Horton decided to fight just days before the playoffs started; the wonderful fight-calling of Jack Edwards; and the fact it was a pretty good scrap.

Considering Horton now has a head-injury history thanks to Aaron Rome’s high hit in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final, here’s hoping the Bruins forward tones down his act a bit. But at least for a season, we were able to enjoy Horton’s expression of what a power forward should be in the modern-day NHL, and obviously those from outside of Boston appreciated his performance as well.