Raw Charge
Summary
It’s no surprise that the Tampa Bay Lightning liked to drop the gloves last season. They fought anyone who looked sideways at them and led the league by a comfortable margin in fighting majors. The Lightning had 44 fights in the regular season, 11 in the preseason, and one more in the postseason. The next closest team in the NHL in the regular season was the Boston Bruins with 33 fights, one third less in total than the Lightning. With the preseason about to commence, let’s take a look back and revisit the top fights of last season! Of course the Lightning weren’t undefeated in their scraps, so we’ll check out a couple duds and get those out of the way first. Honorable Mention: March 8th, 2026 Corey Perry vs (W)Beck Malenstyn (6.92 rating according to HockeyFights.com) Voting via the users at HockeyFights.com: 41/49 (84%)-Malenstyn, 5/49 (10%)-Perry, 3/49 (6%)-Draw This happened during that wild 8-7 loss back in March in Buffalo. Surprisingly, it was only 1-0 at that point early in the 2nd Period when Corey Perry (just about to turn 41) decided to start a fight with Beck Malenstyn (just turned 28). Like everything else in that game that night, it blew up in the Lightning’s face and Malenstyn came away with the victory in 84% of voter’s minds. However, it’s always fun to watch Perry get beat up, even when he’s wearing a Lightning sweater, so we’ll start with a laugher. December 28, 2025 Scott Sabourin vs (W)Arber Xhekaj (8.31) 112/114 (98%)-Xhekaj, 1/114 (1%)-Sabourin, 1/114 (1%)-Draw This fight demonstrates the risks players take in bare-knuckle fighting on ice. Xhekaj and Sabourin are both heavyweights who weren’t very interested in protecting themselves in this one at first and Xhekaj hits Sabourin with a right jab that knocked out Sabourin on and off the ice. Sabourin didn’t play until February 3rd and didn’t fight again until that same Buffalo game from above in March. Don’t worry, Scott will be back on this list again, though. Best fights of 2025-26 October 2, 2025 (W)Darren Raddysh vs AJ Greer (5.11) 8/18 (44%)-Raddysh, 7/18 (39%)-Greer, 3/18 (17%)-Draw This was the second preseason game against Florida after the initial game when AJ Greer went after Brandon Hagel as a carryover from Hagel’s hit on Alexsander Barkov in the playoffs. Safe to say that the tone was set before the season even began. It was a close fight, but I agree with the voters that Raddysh got the better of Greer in this scrap, with Greer coming away with the takedown in the end. October 9, 2025 (W)Curtis Douglas vs Kurtis MacDermid (4.69) 62/67 (93%)-Douglas, 2/67 (3%)-MacDermid, 3/67 (4%)-Draw As mentioned above, the preseason set the tone early and this fight was two minutes into the first game of the year. In a battle to decide who was the bigger (K)Curtis, the Curt in blue came away with the victory according to 93% of voters. Douglas was brought in on waivers in the preseason and ended up tied with Mark Kastelic of the Bruins for the league lead with 10 fights each. Of course, not all of Douglas’s fights came with Tampa Bay as the Canucks claimed him on waivers on March 6th. Douglas started the year 1-0 and made a name for himself pretty quickly in the NHL. January 12, 2026 Nick Paul vs (W)Rodrigo Abols (5.83) & Max Crozier vs (W)Nikita Grebenkin (6.89) 31/42 (74%)-Abols, 2/42 (5%)-Paul, 9/42 (21%)-Draw 31/46 (67%)-Grebenkin, 11/46 (24%)-Crozier, 4/46 (9%)-Draw This was a fun one, despite the Lightning coming away with two L’s in this two-for-one brawl instigated when Rodrigo Abols is called for boarding Declan Carlile. Dominic James, Nick Paul and Max Crozier immediately step in and two fights break out simultaneously. Paul wrestles with Abols for a bit and gets the take down but the real fight was between Crozier and Grebenkin. Crozier gets some pretty good early licks in before Grebenkin finishes with some heavy shots that sent Crozier to the ice. Grebenkin doesn’t stop there before one linesman can separate them as the other linesman was busy separating Paul and Abols. Grebenkin gets away with a few more late ones and both men get to hit the showers early with game misconducts for multiple fights at the same time. Can’t win ’em all. March 24, 2026 Scott Sabourin vs (W)Nick Foligno (7.3) 74/98 (76%)-Foligno, 10/98 (10%)-Sabourin, 14/98 (14%)-Draw As I said above, Scott Sabourin will be all over this recap. This was was a good ol’ donnybrook. It was the longest fight of the year by far. Just two big boys huckin and chuckin some knucks. Foligno came away with 76% of the vote and Sabourin ended the fight leaking a bit in the loss. Just a good old-fashioned hockey fight in an emotional game. December 11, 2025 (W)Scott Sabourin vs Brenden Dillon (6.25) 47/51 (92%)-Sabourin, 4/51 (8%)-Dillon, 0/51-Draw Scott Sabourin is back again and is finally featured in the win column in a big way with this beat down of Brenden Dillon. Kudos to Dillon for eating those lefts like a champ and ending with the take down of Sabourin, but this was Sabourin’s best fight of the year. Scott was a pleasant surprise last season and had some key moments. Watch and enjoy this one: November 8, 2025 (W)Erik Cernak vs Jakob Chychrun (5.08) 36/36 (100%)-Cernak, 0/36-Chychrun, 0/36-Draw Scoreboard don’t lie. That’s not a typo – 100% of voters went with Cernak on this one and they certainly weren’t wrong. The Lightning shut down any chance the Capitals had with under a second left and Chychrun came in and poked the bear after the whistle. That was a mistake. Cernak got him with the classic jersey-over-the-head move and was wailing away before finally stopping at his own leisure. That one had to hurt. March 17, 2026 (W)Yanni Gourde vs Ben Meyers (5.28) 21/25 (84%)-Gourde, 2/25-(8%) Meyers, 2/25 (8%)-Draw Yanni Gourde lays a big hit back in Seattle that Ben Meyers objects to so they decide to dance. Gourde gets him with a few heavy shots early before rag dolling Meyers to the ice and silencing the crowd in this St. Patrick’s Day Massacre. February 5, 2026 (W)Brandon Hagel vs Matthew Tkachuk (6.95) & J.J. Moser vs (W)Gustav Forsling (5.31) 105/122 (86%)-Hagel, 11/122 (9%)-Tkachuk, 6/122 (5%)-Draw 39/45 (87%)-Forsling, 1/45 (2%)-Moser, 5/45 (11%)-Draw This is the moment we’ve all been waiting for. It was a year in the making. With the Lightning up big late against the Florida Panthers, Matthew Tkachuk chooses chaos and goes after Nikita Kucherov which causes a stir. Hagel finally gets his chance and finds Tkachuk with no escape and another chapter of the Lightning-Panthers rivalry is written in the record books. It’s all Brandon Hagel in the fight much to the pleasure of the Lightning crowd. Gustav Forsling and J.J. Moser also have a go, and Forsling has his way with Moser before landing some pretty hilarious body shots if we’re being honest. They were more comical than harmful, but there’s no denying that Forsling got a bit of instant revenge for Tkachuk’s embarrassing loss. All ten skaters on the ice got misconducts and the Lightning skated away with a 6-1 victory in the last meeting between these two rivals. Their first game this year is on September 24th in Tampa and then again two nights later in Sunrise on the 26th to conclude the preseason. Get your popcorn ready! April 21, 2026 (W)Brandon Hagel vs Juraj Slafkovsky (6.0) 86/96 (90%)-Hagel, 7/96 (7%)-Slafkovsky, 3/96 (3%)-Draw Brandon Hagel has been looking for an opportunity to fight in a playoff game for years and Juraj Slafkovsky finally granted Hagel his wish. Slafkovsky learned quickly why nobody would take the bait. It looked like it was smooth sailing for Slaf at first before Hagel turns the tables and gets one hit in that stuns Slafkovsky and drops him to the ground before the refs step in. Hagel then puts on some theatrics for the home fans and the Bolts finally end their tortuously long home losing streak in the Playoffs with the Lightning’s 3-2 win on a J.J. Moser shot in overtime. February 1, 2026 (W)Andrei Vasilevskiy vs Jeremy Swayman (6.62) 109/135 (81%)-Vasilevskiy, 14/109 (10%)-Swayman, 12/135 (9%)-Draw Does the stage get any bigger for one of the most memorable goalie fights in the history of the NHL? The Lightning played outdoors at Raymond James Stadium in one of the coldest days I can remember in Tampa. I was absolutely miserable high up in the crowd at that point before this fight. Brandon Hagel scored 11 seconds into this game before the Bruins scored five straight. The Lightning had just got one back and were pressing hard when Hagel went crashing into Jeremy Swayman’s crease. Swayman got a few shots in on Hagel and Vasy thought he went a bit too far and decided it was his time to shine. And did Vasilevskiy ever rise to the spotlight. The two goalies met at center ice under the lights in front of over 60,000 fans before Vasy unleashed a few surprise lefts (a reoccurring comment after the game was that this is how everyone found out Vasy was a southpaw) directly to Swayman and gets the takedown. It wasn’t the greatest quality goalie fight ever, but it’s hard to say anything could ever top this one. Not only did Vasilevskiy win the fight, he shut the door the rest of the way and the Lightning erase a 5-1 deficit and come away with a 6-5 shootout victory that had just about everything you could ever imagine in a hockey game. Truly one of the most memorable regular season games in Lightning (and perhaps outdoor NHL game) history. What a game! So there you have it. I narrowed it down from 56 fights last season to the top 10. Which of the fights was your favorite? What did you think of all the fights the Lightning participated in last year? Personally, I didn’t hate it but it was always a side show during the season and I’m not sure if it always paid off for the Lightning. With the Panthers adding Brady Tkachuk and others, do you think there will be anymore fireworks in the upcoming preseason series against Florida? Do you think the Lightning will finish with more or less fights next year? I hope you’re ready because NHL hockey is almost back!