Tampa Bay Lightning Captain Steven Stamkos has finally given his reasoning as to why he instigated a fight with Toronto superstar Auston Matthews in Game 3 of their first round playoff series.
On his appearance on the "Clearing the Crease" podcast, Stamkos said:
"We saw Brayden Point go head-first into the board and he was moaning and screaming and it kind of looked like a dangerous hit. So there had to be a response. Kuch got in there, I got in there, and at that point I thought it was a dirty play."
Stamkos and Matthews are much more renowned for their goal-scoring abilities, having been two of the three players to have hit the 60 goal milestone in a single season in the 21st Century.
It looked like he's probably done. And there was a little skirmish and I'm like 'screw this, I'm just going to grab Matthews and see what happens.' I mean, obviously, he's their best player and one of our best players just went into the boards. Screw it, let's just start to throw rabbit punches and see what happens. It was nothing against Auston Matthews other than he was right there and he's their best player. It just kind of happened." - Stamkos on why he jumped Matthews in Game 3 of the Leafs/Lightning series
This was Stamkos's seventh NHL fight while it was Matthews's first in the NHL.
Matthew's Leafs would go on to win the game and the series before falling to the Florida Panthers in the second round.
Fight data curtesy of hockeyfights.com
| POLL | ||
5 JUIN | 374 ANSWERS Steven Stamkos details why he instigated fight with Auston Matthews in Round 1 Who is a better all-time NHL goal-scorer | ||
| Steven Stamkos | 198 | 52.9 % |
| Auston Matthews | 176 | 47.1 % |
| LIST OF POLLS | ||
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