Joel Edmundson and Tyler Myers go toe to toe in the first.

You knew this one was coming, and just in case you didn't Joel Edmundson made sure that there was no doubt about what was coming.

On Saturday night the Montreal Canadiens and Vancouver Canucks faced off in what many had pegged as something of a grudge match, and at least in the game's opening minutes things played out as you would have expected. The grudge match you see stems from the fact that in a meeting earlier this week Montreal Canadiens veteran forward Joel Armia was injured, concussed to be exact, by a big time hit from Vancouver Canucks defenseman Tyler Myers.

Myers was penalized on the play for a hit to the head, however upon reviewing the play the National Hockey League's Department of Player Safety determined that no suspension was warranted for Myers. The league obviously felt that Myers, a very big man, did all he could to deliver the hit through the body, but that left the Habs to take matters into their own hands. 

Even before the first puck had been dropped in this game you knew where it was going, because during warmups Edmundson made his way over to the middle of the ice and had himself a little chat with Myers. Although we will never know exactly what words were exchanged between the two, I think it is safe to assume that Edmundson was letting Myers know that he was going to have to answer for the hit on Armia one way or another. 

To his credit Myers answered the bell early and showed no fear in dropping the gloves with Edmundson, circling the veteran at center ice before eventually engaging and doing his best to trade blows. Myers got very few shots off however and it was fairly obvious that Edmundson was the more experienced man in this aspect of the game, with Myers largely trying to hold on. Edmundson got one particularly nasty left hand off that appeared to stun Myers briefly, but there seemed to be very little visible damage done to the Canucks defenseman's face in spite of the fact that he seemed to get the worst of this exchange.