Brian Boyle and Mikhail Sergachev drop the gloves
(Screenshot Fox Sports Sun)

File this under things you don’t see very often in the hockey world.

A fight between Brian Boyle and Mikhail Sergachev occurred during an exhibition game between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers on Wednesday afternoon in the Toronto Hub City at Scotiabank Arena.

Each NHL team is currently playing one exhibition game before the qualifying round and seeding rounds get underway at the beginning of August. Florida will be taking on the New York Islanders in a best-of-five qualifying series, while the Bolts will be battling Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals to kick off the seeding round in the Eastern Conference.

The exhibition game between the Lightning and Panthers got out of hand as the powerhouse Lightning took a 4-0 lead into the third period. The Lightning looked extremely dominant even without forward Steven Stamkos and defenseman Victor Hedman in the lineup.

Boyle and Sergachev reunited a fued from the past when they dropped the gloves in the third period. Boyle took exception to a nasty slash from Sergachev and dropped the gloves with the feisty Tampa Bay blueliner. Both players landed some solid blows in the tilt. You have to give props to the 6′ 2″ Sergachev for holding his ground against the 6′ 6″ Boyle.

Boyle and Sergachev go back to the 2018 Stanley Cup playoffs when Boyle was a member of the New Jersey Devils. There was an incident in the dying seconds of Game 3 of the first-round series between the two teams in which Boyle took exception to a hit by Sergachev on his teammate Blake Coleman.

Sergachev is developing a reputation for being a feisty defender. During the 2019-2020 NHL regular season, the former Montreal Canadien destroyed Buffalo Sabres’ defenseman Jake McCabe in a fight before taunting the Buffalo crowd.

It’s only NHL exhibition play, but you wouldn’t be able to tell by watching the fight between Boyle and Sergachev.