- Nic Deslauriers and Boko Imama dropped the gloves in the first fight of the 2026-27 NHL season
- A hot mic caught Deslauriers chirping the Panthers again in the second period
- Read below for the fight video and the full hot mic clip
The NHL season is a few hours old and Nic Deslauriers already owns two of its best moments.
Carolina’s enforcer fought Boko Imama in the first period of Tuesday’s opener against the Panthers. Then a hot mic caught him in the second period, letting Florida know he wasn’t done talking about it.
ESPN’s broadcast picked up the audio late in the second, right as Imama was headed to the box for tripping William Carrier. Deslauriers had one question for him.
“Want me to put you on your ass again? F***ing big b***h,” Deslauriers yelled.
Listen to the hot mic:
That “again” was about the fight. With 1:59 left in the first, Deslauriers and Imama squared up at center ice and threw for a good while before both hit the ice and the linesmen jumped in.
He came out of it fired up, waving his arms to get the Lenovo Center crowd going on his way to the box. Both players got five-minute majors.
Catch the first scrap of the season:
Neither guy is new to this. Deslauriers, 35, has 799 penalty minutes across 708 NHL games and signed a two-year deal at the Hurricanes’ Cup parade in June.
Imama is a 30-year-old Montreal native who spent most of the last few years in the Penguins organization, largely with AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. He came into Tuesday with 33 career NHL games.
None of it swung the result. Gustav Forsling scored at 4:55 of overtime to give Florida a 1-0 win, and Jacob Markstrom stopped all 15 shots he faced to spoil a night that started with Carolina raising its Stanley Cup banner.
Deslauriers got the fight and the last word. The Panthers got the two points.
