Florida and Tampa Bay renewed their cross-state rivalry tonight, as the two are meeting for the first time since the Lightning swept the Panthers in last year's second round of the playoffs.
Clearly, the bad blood hasn't settled as two star players were involved in a dangerous incident. During the second period, Nikita Kucherov hit Aleksander Barkov into the boards from behind.
The Panthers captain goes in very awkwardly as his head gets crunched between Kucherov and the boards. Barkov left the game after the incident, and Kucherov was not given a penalty on the play.
