MONTREAL — The first rule of potentially surviving prison is to pick the biggest, baddest man in the yard and immediately challenge him to a fight.

If you survive that — and that’s a big if — no one else will mess with you.

Seems to be the logic that Florian Xhekaj applied in deciding to drop his gloves with Philadelphia Flyers winger Nicolas Deslauriers in his first pre-season game with the Montreal Canadiens this year.

“I probably wouldn’t have fought that guy,” said his brother Arber.

Let the record show that Arber did fight that guy back in 2022, when he was 21 years old — the same age Florian is right now.

The intentions were also the same.

“It’s good to get it over with,” Arber said, “and it also gives him confidence to know that he can hang in there.”

Florian more than hung i

See Full Page