Leave it to Matthew Tkachuk to trigger Fight Night in Montreal.
The feisty American forward wanted to open Saturday's 4 Nations Face-Off game by dropping the gloves against Canada's Brandon Hagel, and we all know what happened next.
The three fights in the first nine seconds matched an NHL season-high for fights in an entire game.
"He asked, and I'm not backing down from him," Hagel told Sportsnet's Kyle Bukauskas in the first intermission.
"I think me and him have a pretty good history just going back and forth throughout the season (with Tkachuk's Florida Panthers and Hagel's Tampa Bay Lightning). I thought potentially if we started together he was going to ask me. Long time coming."
American forward Brady Tkachuk, Matthew's brother, and Sam Bennett followed with their own fight before Canada's Colton Parayko went at it with J.T. Miller to wrap up the scrapping hat-trick.
After the game, the Tkachuk brothers said a group chat earlier in the day started the fight plan up.
Brady Tkachuk confirmed his brother was behind the initial plan in an intermission interview with ESPN.
"I think it just happened pretty organically. Matthew said he wanted to go first, and it just happened," Brady said.
"Right when we found out the starting lineup, he said he wanted a piece of and coordinated with (Bennett, his Panthers teammate) there. And then Millsy finished off with a big-boy one, too."
Following the game, Matthew Tkachuk told reporters that they wanted to use the fights to send a message to Canada that "this is our time."
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