On the opening face-off, Staal was coming in to take the draw, Tkachuk was on the wing to his right, yapping. The puck was dropped and three seconds later, captain-on-captain crime was afoot.
Tkachuk has a penchant for firing up his teams with grand gestures.
Last season, while playing for Team USA in a round-robin game in the 4 Nations Face-Off against Team Canada in the openly rabid Bell Centre in Montreal, Brady Tkachuk and his brother Matthew, of the Florida Panthers, got into fights off consecutive face-offs to start that game.
This time, Tkachuk landed some early shots, but Staal rallied and scored with a shot of his own before wrestling Tkachuk to the ice.
“Physical guy, plays hard and he wanted to go,” Staal said. “It’s part of the gig. Obviously, those Tkachuk brothers, they play hard and physical and they play the style of game that is hard to play against and he is no different. It was an interesting start for sure.”
Staal, who rarely fights, says he couldn’t remember ever doing so off the opening whistle in an NHL game. He had to sit in the penalty box for five agonizing minutes, unable to control the game like he craves, serving penance for answering a challenge.
Upon release, Staal skated to his bench during a stoppage, sat down and was caught by a TV camera exhorting his team to give more.
Then, he led the way during the 55 minutes that followed.
Staal played 16:20 in the game. He played on the power play. He played 3:19 on a penalty kill that was 4-for-4, and he frustrated and flustered Tkachuk at every turn, helping to limit him to two shots. Staal countered with two shots, delivered four hits and went 10-of-18 on face-offs.
Frederik Andersen, the Carolina goalie, has seen this show before. He was asked if Saturday could serve as a sizzle reel for who Staal is in the postseason. The goalie, who made 22 saves, bristled at the suggestion that this performance was special.
“You have to look at every single game,” Andersen said. “He does it one way all the time and that is the right way. He’s very in tune with the way he is being asked to play. I think he executes that on a nightly basis, so it would be a disservice to say only tonight was his game.”