FT. LAUDERDALE — One night after capturing the hockey world’s attention by going head to head in a fight with David Pastrnak, the Florida Panthers’ Matthew Tkachuk spoke Thursday about how much respect he had for the Boston Bruins’ Game 7 first-round hero for accepting his invitation to fight — and gave play by play as to how the rare star-vs.-star bout came about.

“I think it was just their bottom six guys were doing what they were doing, which I don’t think we really liked on our side — I guess they kind of started it there,” Tkachuk said, smiling. “I don’t know, I guess I wanted in on the action. I asked him to fight. He said, ‘We’ll do it next game.’ I’m like, ‘Maybe we should just do it right now.’ He’s like, ‘Alright, I’m going out next shift.’

“Give him tons of respect. Those are two guys that aren’t known for fighting — me and him — and two players that are probably known more for the offensive side of the game.”

PASTRNAK AND TKACHUK DROP THE GLOVES! 🥊 pic.twitter.com/RQqDxyOO2F

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 9, 2024

In fact, as Tkachuk reminded, “We were both up for the Hart last year and just to see ourselves battling at center ice in a playoff game, it’s pretty cool. It’s good for hockey. Both emotional guys that are leaders for our teams that really just want to show we’ll do whatever it takes to win. We weren’t going out there to play patty-cake or anything. We were going out there to have some fun in the fight and, I don’t know, try to land some punches.”

The fisticuffs came after a pair of massive after-whistle melees that resulted in the 10-minute misconducts of Boston’s Pat Maroon, Justin Brazeau, Trent Frederic, Charlie McAvoy and Brad Marchand and Florida’s Eetu Luostarinen, Dmitry Kulikov, Niko Mikkola, Nick Cousins and Sam Reinhart.

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After Tkachuk challenged Pastrnak to the fight, Pastrnak went to the bench for a line change so he could be fresh. You can see on video that he informed coach Jim Montgomery that he’d be fighting Tkachuk the next shift. Pastrnak said after the game he wasn’t afraid of Tkachuk and insinuated it was time to take a stand with the Bruins getting beaten so badly.

“I can take a punch. I’d do anything for these guys here,” Pastrnak said.

Pasta and Tkachuk agreed to fight before going at it the next shift! 🤯 pic.twitter.com/HOVK6Spfpi

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 9, 2024

Tkachuk is a lot more experienced dropping the gloves than Pastrnak, but he quipped that he doesn’t like to fight because his brother, Ottawa’s Brady Tkachuk, and father, former NHLer Keith Tkachuk, “say I’m not very good at it.”

“During that moment, you can’t even hear the crowd,” Matthew Tkachuk said. “You have no idea what you’re even doing. You just kind of black out and throw as many punches as you can.

“It was a good fight.”

Tkachuk’s father was actually at the game and looked fired up after the fight. But when his son got the boot with an accompanying 10-minute misconduct, Matthew said his dad “was just excited that he got to leave early. I think he was ready to get out of there.”

As for Matthew, he said he went to the locker room and hung out with his fellow kicked-out teammates and the trainers.

He’s in the midst of another terrific postseason, tied for the team lead with 10 points in seven games and, as coach Paul Maurice noted Thursday, continues to be disciplined, as shown when he didn’t retaliate in the first period Wednesday after Marchand caught him with a monstrous, clean check.

“The true statement of that game is the hit he took from Marchand and (how he) got back up,” Maurice said. “He’s just a gamer. He’s just in on everything, but he’s not starting fires out there, I don’t think. He was a bit of an arsonist at the start of last year, and then that stopped.”

Tkachuk said he can’t wait for Game 3 and to hear how Bruins fans greet him and the Panthers, who upset the Bruins in seven games in last year’s first round. There’s a chance Sam Bennett could return for the first time since getting injured in Game 2 of the Tampa Bay series. Maurice said he’ll take Friday’s full morning skate, and then they’ll decide.

“It’s going to be good. It’s Friday night in Boston,” Tkachuk said. “Playoffs, I mean, there’s going to be a lot of energy in the rink. Two teams that are very familiar with each other and two teams that really want to win. This is a really good series right now.

Brad Marchand LEVELS Matthew Tkachuk 😱💥 pic.twitter.com/AS5KxYtaTk

— Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) May 8, 2024

“We’ve seen it last year in the playoffs. They weren’t too happy with us going back for Game 5 and especially Game 7. We’re used to the hatred as an away team, especially our team now with a little bit of a rivalry that’s being created here. We go and we just play. That’s what makes us good. We don’t care where we play, who we play. We just play and we have fun doing it. So hopefully the crowd fires us up.”

As for carryover, Tkachuk doesn’t expect that.

“We’ve got to try to ride the momentum of winning the last game, but in playoffs, it’s almost like whatever happens the game prior — win or lose, crazy, boring, whatever it is — it’s a clean, fresh slate that next game.

“Now it’s a best of five, and they technically have home ice now, so it’s up to us to win Friday to get home ice back.”

GO DEEPER

Was David Pastrnak fighting Matthew Tkachuk stupid or awesome? Yes

(Photo: Sam Navarro / USA Today)