Choose your words wisely around Nathan MacKinnon.

The Colorado Avalanche superstar didn’t like something that Los Angeles Kings defenseman Brandt Clarke said during the third period of a season-opening 8-4 win at Ball Arena. On a wild, goal-filled night, including two from MacKinnon, his work with his fists was the biggest surprise.

“It happens,” MacKinnon said. “It’s an intense game. He didn’t say a great word to me. I didn’t like the word, and … yeah, we fought.”

MacKinnon confirmed that he was the one who challenged Clarke to a fight. He won the scrap pretty easily, and then MacKinnon hurled his helmet towards the boards as he skated to the penalty box.

The crowd loved it. The Avs scored 43 seconds after it happened.

“(Expletive) right,” Avs goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood told reporters. “I don’t want him to fight much because you don’t want him to get hurt, but I don’t know, the guy’s got big balls.”

Clarke hit MacKinnon along the boards, and the latter retaliated with a stick to the defenseman’s shin. Clarke ran into MacKinnon again as the puck left the area, which caused the Avs star to take a harder chop at his lower leg.

After Clarke fell to the ice, MacKinnon turned his back to the play and was ready to drop the gloves.

MacKinnon is not the first Avalanche player to take issue with Clarke. Colorado has played Los Angeles in the opening game of the season three of the past four years, and swept the Kings out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season.

Clarke also got tangled up with Cale Makar earlier in this game, which led to the Avs’ two-time Norris Trophy winning defenseman crashing awkwardly into the boards.

“He plays hard. He gets under guys’ skin,” MacKinnon said of Clarke. “He’s a really good defenseman, but when you play like that sometimes you have to fight. He’s a good player though. He plays hard.”

This was MacKinnon’s first fight since Dec. 27, 2024. He dropped the gloves with Utah’s Barrett Hayton at Delta Center late in the second period in that one after a long shift where the two came together multiple times.

This also wasn’t MacKinnon’s first helmet toss, though the first time it was his own headgear. A long, physical battle with Arizona’s Connor Garland on March 31, 2021 did not end with a fight, but it did include a 10-minute misconduct penalty for MacKinnon after he picked Garland’s helmet off the ice and tossed it underhand at his chest.

The Kings and Avalanche aren’t really rivals in the way Dallas and Colorado are, but there’s definitely some unpleasant familiarity after a playoff series last year.

“I love the passion,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “It’s the answer I’ll give you every time (MacKinnon) fights. Love the passion. Love that he sticks up for his teammates. Want to make sure he’s healthy coming out of it.”

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