Bokondji Imama wasted no time Tuesday, dropping the gloves with Nic Deslauriers as the Florida Panthers opened their season in Carolina.
It went down as the first gloves-off moment of the NHL season, with the game still scoreless in the first period.
When the camera settles, Imama stands in white No. 14 with both hands up at his head, while Carolina's No. 44 lingers a few strides away and an official hovers nearby.
A loose stick sits on the ice behind them, left right where it landed.
Good. Who needs a goal to wake up a building on opening night, anyway?
It's the office party where somebody grabs the microphone before the appetizers are out. Nobody's shocked, but everybody's paying attention now.
This is also the Panthers' first regular-season game with Brady Tkachuk on the roster, after his eight seasons in Ottawa.
Nic Deslauriers steps in as Florida controls the early shot count
At that point, the scoreboard graphic had Florida ahead 6-1 in shots, a lopsided start for the road team.
Tkachuk brings 821 career penalty minutes with him, so the Panthers aren't exactly short on edge.
Deslauriers was Carolina's man in this one. Rod Brind'Amour's Hurricanes went 3-1-0 in exhibition play and closed with a 6-0 win in Nashville last Saturday.
That shutout capped a three-game winning streak to close out camp.
Paul Maurice's Panthers finished the preseason at 2-0-2, with a 3-2 shootout loss to Tampa Bay in their final tune-up.
The Panthers didn't lose any of those four exhibition games in regulation.
Aleksander Barkov carries a $10,000,000 cap hit for Florida, and Seth Jones brings $9,500,000 on the blue line.
From here, the Panthers head west for San Jose on Thursday, Anaheim on Sunday and Los Angeles next Tuesday.
Carolina gets a quicker turnaround, hosting Washington on Friday before a Saturday stop in Philadelphia and a trip to Montreal on October 6.
Imama already owns a trivia answer for 2026-27. Whether the rest of the night follows his lead gets decided over the next two periods.
Do you want to see more gloves-off moments like Imama vs Deslauriers this season?
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