Was the Brady Tkachuk and Jordan Staal fight necessary?

The playoffs started off with a massive bang, as in the opening game between the Carolina Hurricanes and the Ottawa Senators, captains Jordan Staal and Brady Tkachuk dropped the gloves off the opening faceoff. But considering the players involved and how early into the game it was, was the fight necessary or did it come off as a bit too staged?

Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton talked about Staal and Tkachuk’s fight and whether it felt out of place on Daily Faceoff Live.

Tyler Yaremchuk: I’ll be honest, I don’t know if I’m in on this. This feels a little bit too like staged. I get that Brady Tkachuk’s trying to get his teammates fired up, so maybe it’s necessary from that perspective. But you’re taking Brady Tkachuk out of the first five minutes of this series. I know Jordan Staal is an important player on Carolina too, but I want Brady on the ice, not sitting in the penalty box for five minutes.

Carter Hutton: Yeah, it’s a pretty good trade-off too. And what I did like about it for Jordan Staal, knowing him and his demeanor, this is not really his kind of brand. But Jordan Staal is one of the biggest, strongest guys I’ve ever been around. There’s a group of us that would train here, whether it was Eric, Marc, Jordan, Robert Bortuzzo, Patrick Sharp. And Jordan Staal is a man among boys. He is an absolute beast. So when he got a hold of [Tkachuk], I thought that was awesome. I do love it because he’s standing up for his teammates. It’s not in his demeanor.

But that being said, I just don’t really think that there’s a point of where it’s at. The game’s got to be played on the ice. And if you’re going to do it, you better be ready to answer the bell because Jordan Staal did very well in that fight.

You can watch the full episode here…