The Canadiens’ Jayden Struble and Arber Xhekaj were talking Friday afternoon about how they had to do something to fire up their teammates Saturday night against the Boston Bruins at the Bell Centre after losing their last two games at home while being outscored 12-1.

Struble decided before the game started he would ask Bruins defenceman Nikita Zadorov to fight him. Struble is 6-foot and 207 pounds. Zadorov is 6-foot-7 and 255 pounds.

There’s a reason why there are weight divisions in boxing and UFC.

“He’s a big boy,” Struble said. “I thought I’d get the guys going. So I just asked him after the anthem and he said yes. So that was it, really.”

Struble and Zadorov dropped the gloves four seconds after the puck dropped and the Canadiens defenceman did OK despite the big size difference.

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