The Tampa Bay Lightning and Toronto Maple Leafs are familiar foes in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, so unsurprisingly, a lot of these guys aren't particularly friendly with one another. We saw a unique example of this in Game 3 of their series on Saturday night when Steven Stamkos and Auston Matthews ended up getting into a fight with each other.

Stamkos and Matthews are two of their respective teams top players, and they very rarely go against each other considering they are both offensive players. But the two got tangled up amid a series of scrums in the third period, and got sent to the penalty box for fighting. It's rare to see star players like these guys drop their gloves, but after the game, Stamkos had a simple explanation for his fight with Matthews.

“Playoff hockey.” – Steven Stamkos, ESPN

Playoff hockey is a completely different game from the product you see on the ice during the regular season, which helps explain why such a large brawl broke out between these two teams. Stamkos rarely gets involved in such disputes, but the playoffs are different, which is why he decided to go toe-to-toe with Toronto's top offensive player.

You can make a case that the fights actually hurt the Lightning more than the Maple Leafs, as Toronto eventually tied the game in the third period and went on to win it in overtime by a score of 4-3. With the series now sitting at 2-1 in favor of Toronto, Game 4 is sure to be a heated affair, and with a lot of history between these two teams, Stamkos and Matthews likely won't be the last two folks to get into a fight in this series.