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A rare fight, but Steven Stamkos gets it right

 
Lightning center and captain Steven Stamkos fights Bruins left wing Brad Marchand on Sunday.
Lightning center and captain Steven Stamkos fights Bruins left wing Brad Marchand on Sunday.
Published March 24, 2015

TAMPA — Former Lightning enforcer Andre Roy said Steven Stamkos won't receive many style points when it comes to his fight Sunday with Boston's Brad Marchand.

"I don't think either of us got a shot in," Stamkos admitted.

But Roy believed the Lightning captain struck the right tone in quickly tackling Marchand, a feisty agitator, to the ice.

"He did it right," said Roy, who is now an analyst for RDS, a Canadian sports network. "He went in and said, 'You little rat, that's enough!' He just grabbed him and whipped him on the ice. It was short and sweet, like he wanted."

Stamkos' rare bout — just the second of his career — not only earned respect from his teammates, but others around the NHL. It was another sign of Stamkos, 25, embracing his captain's role and providing leadership, evolving his game behind his skills as an elite scorer.

"If I'm the coach, I'm like, 'No, no, no, Stammer please not a regular diet of (fighting) — I want you on the ice,' " says former Lightning coach Terry Crisp, now a Predators color analyst. "But the team sees he's serious and he cares. The other guys on the bench are like, 'Wow, what just happened? Stammer went off the deep end? Someone ticked him off.' The guys are saying, 'Stammer's alive, let's get kicking, too.' "

That was exactly what happened, as the Lightning scored twice in the minute following Stamkos' first-period fight — in a 15-second span — to spark a 5-3 victory over the Bruins. It wasn't surprising to see a Lightning player respond after Marchand started a scrum with Tyler Johnson, then sent Valtteri Filppula to the ice with a questionable hit.

But when it was Stamkos, whose only other fight was in 2008? It meant even more.

"It might have been different if I did it," wing J.T. Brown said. "Whenever somebody fights for the team, we all love it. But when you see Stamkos doing it, it just gives us more energy because it's not something you would normally see him do."

NHL Network analyst Craig Button said it showed "nothing was beneath" Stamkos, that he was "all in."

"There's some guys who would say, 'That's Brad Marchand being Brad Marchand, let someone else take care of him,' " added NBCSN analyst Pierre McGuire. "Stamkos is like, 'No, I'm the captain. I'm Stamkos. I'm not going to let someone push around an important player on our team.' He fought for his team. That's why he's a champion."

McGuire said few players in the league understand the right timing for such fights, and Stamkos picked the perfect moment. McGuire referenced former Lightning captain Vinny Lecavalier's fight with Calgary's Jarome Iginla in the 2004 Stanley Cup final as an example.

"I remember when I saw Vinny fight in some games, if I didn't get in a fight before, I'd get in a fight after," said Roy. "I'd be like, 'What the heck? (Forget) this, I'm going to fight somebody.' "

Roy, a veteran of more than 120 fights, said Lightning management and coaches likely had to "hold their breath" watching Stamkos, one of the league's top scorers and their best player, risking injury in a fight. Can you imagine if Stamkos broke his hand with a punch, or fell and hurt his knee?

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General manager Steve Yzerman, the iconic former Red Wings captain, didn't fight often — just nine times in 22 seasons. "I wasn't very good at it," he quipped.

But Yzerman, who feels Stamkos is doing a "great job" as captain, gives him leeway.

"I trust his judgment, he makes decisions for the right reasons," Yzerman said. "We want him on the ice, but he did what he felt was right."

Stamkos isn't surprised about the hoopla surrounding his fight, which on Monday was discussed at length on outlets such as the NHL Network and Sportsnet's Hockey Central radio show in Canada.

"When you're a captain, a leader, there are lot of eyes on you in every situation," Stamkos said.

As Stamkos grows as a leader, often making pep talks between periods, actions sometimes speak louder than words.

"Some guys, when it gets rough, they'll disappear, you don't see the same type of player," Roy said. "At least (Stamkos) doesn't back down and just put his head in the sand every time there's a little tussle. I think that's when you're like, 'He's a good player, but he can also stick up for himself.' "

Contact Joe Smith at joesmith@tampabay.com. Follow @TBTimes_JSmith.