Trouba’s Explosive Hits on Kadri, Dube, Trigger Flames First

In one moment, Calgary Flames winger Dillon Dube was getting rocked by Jacob Trouba. 

In another, he's rushing to teammate Nazem Kadri's defence after Trouba struck again, separating the Flames all-star representative from his helmet in explosive fashion. 

Despite neither being dirty, Trouba willingly scrapped with both Chris Tanev (after the Dube hit) and then Dube looking to avenge the Kadri bomb. 

It was a first for Dube — who has never dropped the gloves in the NHL and did so against a formidable opponent. 

"In the first period there, it was good to see all those guys do that. Tanny stepped up for myself and you really feel a part of it when a guy does that for you. That's some old-school hockey there in the first period," Dube said of the hit that caught him trying to exit his own blueline while watching the puck. 

Trouba put him on blast. 

Dube was on blast again after the Kadri hit. Clearly outmatched in the instinctual attack as Kadri rose from the ice and hopped backwards out of the way when the Calgary Flames speedster instinctually flew in to stand up for his fallen friend. 

"Just showing up. If he lands one on me, so be it. If I show up, I'll be fine," Dube told reporters in New York after the 5-4 overtime loss. "I know every single guy in the locker-room would do the exact same for me."

Tanev did just that. In his first game back from nursing an upper-body injury that looked like it was on the same side of his offseason shoulder surgery, Tanev didn't hesitate. 

Dube didn't even seem to blink.  

"I was the closest guy to step up and help guys out. Step up, help guys out, and that's what Tanny did for me. It's hard not to do it when our hardest-working guy does it for me in the first period."

His first NHL fight didn't include a punch. At least not one that he threw. No, Dube absorbed three or four, including one pretty solid connection from Trouba, before hitting the ice. 

That just made him a talking point the next day, too. 

"He didn't even hesitate," Rasmus Andersson told reporters on Tuesday. "He went right in there, and props to him. He probably doesn't have too many fights on his resume, so to step up against a guy like that, it's not an easy task.

"You know you're fighting a tough guy and he knows what he's doing."