Brady Tkachuk and Jordan Staal drop the gloves on opening face-off.

The Stanley Cup playoffs just kicked off with a bang.

The Ottawa Senators and Carolina Hurricanes kicked off the Stanley Cup playoffs on Saturday afternoon with the first series on the schedule, and it wasn't long at all before we were treated to some fireworks in this one.

Only 3 seconds expired off the game clock after the opening face-off before the whistle was blown, and that was thanks to Senators captain Brady Tkachuk squaring off against Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal.

It looked like it was Staal who initiated the challenge on this one but Tkachuk was more than eager to respond, with the Senators captain on the offensive in the early moments of the fight. Tkachuk was raining down shots on Staal but it looked as though Staal was biding his time before hitting Tkachuk with a massive right hand of his own.

The shot connected clean and it was enough to send Tkachuk down to the ice, putting an end to this one rather quickly.

Here is a look at the replay: