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There has been a noticeable rivalry between the Vancouver Canucks' Nikita Zadorov and the Edmonton Oilers' Evander Kane throughout their second-round playoff series.
During Thursday's Game 5, Zadorov was seen mocking Kane for his complaining to the referees during the second period.
Watch the video here:
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Evander Kane was given a two-minute minor penalty for slashing Nikita Zadorov at 8:49 of the second period. The penalty seemed to escalate the tension between the two players, leading to the subsequent incident.
The two were also involved in an incident in Game 3 on Sunday. During the second period, Nikita Zadorov delivered a massive hit on Kane, sending him flying into the Edmonton Oilers bench. As Kane tried to regain his footing, his skate came dangerously close to making contact with the Canucks defenseman.
Zadorov reacted swiftly and avoided contact with Kane's skate. In the same matchup, Zadorov was fined $5000 by the NHL's Department of Player Safety for cross-checking the Oilers' Connor McDavid during a scrum after the final buzzer.
Nikita Zadorov opens up about playing in Edmonton
Nikita Zadorov had some interesting things to say about playing in Edmonton. During a media interaction ahead of Game 3 last week, the 29-year-old defenseman said it's fun to play in Edmonton in front of passionate fans.
According to him, there's not much else to do in the city, though, except watch hockey, which is why fans in Edmonton are so passionate (via Oilersnations):
“It’s fun, they are good fans, diehard fans,” said Zadorov. “I mean, there’s pretty much nothing else to do in that city except watch hockey,” he said when asked about the fans and atmosphere in Rogers Place. “It’s been fun. I’ve only had good experiences over there for sure"
Meanwhile, the Canucks ended up winning Game 5 3-2 at the Rogers Arena to go 3-2 up in the series.
The game was deadlocked until J.T. Miller scored the winner with less than 40 seconds remaining in the third period.
Game 6 returns to Rogers Place on Saturday.
