The Florida Panthers entered their Wednesday night matchup with the Arizona Coyotes harboring some resentment. Florida and Arizona got into it the last time they met, with Jason Zucker and Nick Cousins in the middle of it. These teams had bad enough blood, there were two fights within the first 10 seconds.

When the dust settled, the Panthers skated away with the victory. After the game, Matthew Tkachuk assessed his team's performance. And he did admit the way things went the last time did not sit well with him.

“It was awesome,” Tkachuk said Wednesday night, via The Associated Press. “Tons of energy from our team before the game even started. Not too thrilled with the way it ended over there in Arizona.”

“I thought we brought it tonight and we brought it from the start. It’s good to see everybody pitch in and just have a really good group effort,” the Panthers star continued, via The Associated Press.

The history between Matthew Tkachuk's Panthers and the Coyotes

The last time these teams was back on January 2. Panthers forward Nick Cousins threw a questionable hit at Coyotes defenseman Juuso Valimaki. After that, Arizona forward Jason Zucker took a shot at Cousins. The players on the ice began going after each other as a result of the incidents.

This resulted in a suspension for Zucker. The NHL suspended the veteran forward for three games. It was a decision that sparked a ton of debate between fans online. Many believed the league was too lenient with Cousins, who is no stranger to questionable hits.

Once the puck dropped on Wednesday, Coyotes forward Jack McBain threw hands with Panthers forward Ryan Lomberg. Seconds later, it was Arizona's Liam O'Brien taking on Florida's Jonah Gadjovich.

“We said a lot of words,” Gadjovich recalled of what happened before the game, according to The Associated Press. “Not a lot of nice words that I probably shouldn’t repeat, but sometimes stuff like that happens and we’re here to answer the bell.”

Wednesday night represented the final meeting of the season between these two teams. It'll certainly be interesting to see if things are settled now, or if the bad blood will spill into the 2024-24 NHL season.