3. SERGACHEV CAN THROW HANDS
Earlier in the season, Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said Mikhail Sergachev had taken that next step in his career once he learned how to play more physical and use his big body to his advantage.
Montreal's Shea Weber got an up-close-and-personal view of Sergachev's progression.
At the end of the second period with the Lightning ahead comfortably 3-0, a dustup started in the corner, Ben Chiarot and Barclay Goodrow being the main instigators. After it seemed everything had died down and the teams would head to their respective rooms, Sergachev and Weber dropped the gloves next to the Lightning net. Sergachev unleashed a barrage of jabs into Weber's head, bobbed out of the way when Weber tried to counter with a wild hook and took Weber down to the ground.
The fight didn't end there, though, as both combatants got back up on their skates and traded a couple more shots before ending it.
Weber is one of the tougher players in the NHL and, at 6-foot-4, 230 pounds, one of the League's more imposing figures too.
That mattered little to Sergachev, who by all accounts won the fight.
"He's getting more confident I can tell you that," Cooper said. "I'm not sure he knew who he was dealing with at the time that went on. I don't know how all that started. It's a man's game and tempers flare, but probably something he wouldn't have done a couple years ago. He's way more comfortable doing it. He was going up against a really tough guy."
Sergachev refuses to be pushed around on the ice. He's delivered punishing hits with regularity these days and seems to play with an edge that wasn't there his first couple seasons in the League.
His fighting skills weren't a surprise to at least one of his teammates, however.
"He's a big boy. He was born in Russia. There's always something happening on the streets," Vasilevskiy said, smiling. "It wasn't a big surprise for me."