Evan Rodrigues doesn't mince words about 312 PIM-laden Panthers vs Lightning clash

There is no love lost between the two Florida rivals as the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning combined for a total of 312 penalty-in-minutes with 14 players removed. This follows Thursday's preseason game, where a similar physical battle played out between the two teams.

Evan Rodrigues scored three goals for the Panthers as they won 7-0, with a game personified by special team goals. The Panthers scored 6 power-play goals and added another 4-on-4 goal to hand the Lightning their only loss of the preseason.

Rodrigues, however, like most of the Panthers' bench wasn't pleased with the Lightning's approach to the game.

“It got silly. It got stupid by the end of it,” Rodrigues said. (0:20) “It wasn't really hockey out there.”

Thursday's encounter increased the mutual hatred between both teams after Panthers' A.J. Greer cross-checked and punched Lightning's Brandon Hagel. Following the game, the NHL Player Safety Department fined Greer a maximum amount of $2,213.54.

With the incident held in latent memory, the Lightning looked determined to send a statement to their rivals. Paul Maurice feels that more action from the NHL is expected.

“You always have a concern when you are down to five or six forwards; that’s dangerous,” Maurice said. “But we got through it.

“The league will look at that, handle it the same way they do in the playoffs. I’ll leave it at that.”

The crazy nature of the matchup only intensified after the Panthers were denied an eighth goal after it was recorded on the scoreboard for 6:03 minutes. Niko Mikkola was handed a game misconduct right after the 4th minute. He assisted on a goal by Jesper Boqvist, four minutes later, with the NHL having to remove the goal from the records after assessment.

Jon Cooper unsurprised by the nature of the Panthers-Lightning coach

As per Lightning head coach Jon Cooper, the fights between the two rosters has been brewing for a long time, considering the heated nature of the game between the two teams.

“The two Florida teams have had a lot of success in this league the last six years,” Cooper said. “And I think anybody that’s been a part of this rivalry would probably look at this box score and not be surprised and be like, I can’t believe it’s taken this long for something like that to happen.

"It’s two extremely proud franchises and the boys played with their heart on their sleeves. That’s all I can say.”

In this decade, the Lightning and Panthers have been to 4 of the 5 Stanley Cups, and each time, either team has knocked out their rivals to win the Conference.