The 2026-27 season was about a period old when it produced its first genuinely great piece of audio. Nic Deslauriers didn’t know the microphone was live as he chirped the Panthers bench.
The Carolina Hurricanes forward had already made his mark before that. He and Florida’s Boko Imama dropped the gloves in the first period of Tuesday’s opener at Lenovo Center, giving the new season its first fight. It was a fairly even exchange between two players who make their living this way, though Deslauriers came out of it the happier of the two and spent the aftermath trying to get the Raleigh crowd on its feet.
Who did Nic Deslauriers fight?
Imama is 30, a Montreal native taken 180th overall by Tampa Bay in 2015, and has spent most of his career in the AHL with more than 400 games there against 33 in the NHL. Florida signed him precisely for nights like this one.
The problem for Imama was that Deslauriers wasn’t finished with him. In the second period, with the score still 0-0, a broadcast microphone picked up the 35-year-old aiming a line at the entire Florida Panthers bench.
“Want me to put you on your ass again? F*ing big b*ch,” Deslauriers said.
READ MORE: Sergei Bobrovsky is taking heat over McKenna’s moment
He has the resume to back it up. Deslauriers has played more than 700 NHL games across stops in Buffalo, Montreal, Anaheim, Minnesota and Philadelphia before joining Carolina late last season, and signed a two-year extension with the Hurricanes over the summer. Since entering the league in 2014-15, nobody has recorded more fighting majors than his 88.
The night itself belonged to the visitors. Carolina raised its 2026 Stanley Cup banner before puck drop, with captain Jordan Staal carrying the Cup around the ice, then watched Gustav Forsling end a scoreless game with a one-timer 4.3 seconds from a shootout. Florida won 1-0, with Jacob Markstrom stopping all 15 shots he faced.
It was the first season opener to reach the end of regulation scoreless since Toronto and Minnesota managed it in 1984, in a penalty-heavy game where the two teams went a combined 0-for-13 on the power play.
Read more:
