In the end, Montreal Canadiens defenseman Jayden Struble had a pretty simple message for Ottawa Senators forward Nick Cousins: FAFO.
It was the kind of on-ice response that doesn’t need a translator. No press release, no postgame spin. Just a young defenseman standing up for one of his teammates — and sending a reminder that Montreal won’t quietly turn the page when someone takes liberties with one of their own.
The Canadiens had long memories heading into Saturday night’s matchup with Ottawa, and Cousins’ preseason cheap shot on Ivan Demidov hadn’t faded in the slightest. It wasn’t just a late hit or an overly aggressive forecheck. It was the sort of reckless move that crosses the unwritten line — a nasty slash on the wrist of a team’s most promising young player, and the kind of thing that doesn’t get forgotten, no matter how many calendar pages turn.
Struble remembered. And when Cousins came around again, the third-year blueliner made sure he knew that the Canadiens did, too.
“When you have a guy like that taking a shot at your star young player, that was a bad play,” Struble said afterward. “None of us liked it. We were thinking about it. This is the first time we played him since. That’s on our minds. You can’t go around trying to hurt our best players.”
Montreal’s Jayden Struble Gave Ottawa Center Nick Cousins What He Had Coming
Those words weren’t empty. Struble backed them up the way hockey players have for generations — by dropping the gloves and answering the call.
For Montreal fans, it was more than a fight. It was closure. A little frontier justice for a wrong that hadn’t yet been made right.
Struble, 24, has become the kind of player teammates rally around — steady when it’s time to defend, and fearless when it’s time to make a point. He didn’t posture. He didn’t preen. He just handled business, clean and direct, and let Cousins — and everyone else in the building — understand exactly where the line was drawn.
What made it even more memorable was how it wasn’t Arber Xhekaj, the Canadiens’ usual enforcer, who stepped in. According to several reports, Cousins made a concerted effort before and throughout the game to avoid crossing paths with Xhekaj, and he even tried to stay away from a confrontation with Struble, attempting instead to goad Brendan Gallagher and Alexandre Carrier into fisticuffs.
But eventually, Struble made sure Cousins got what was coming to him. The fight was fast, furious, and about as decisive as they come. Cousins, who’d spent much of the past few weeks playing the role of villain-in-denial, suddenly looked a little less brave when Struble met him at center ice. And he looked a little worse for wear afterwards, sporting a nice gash on his cheekbone as he left for the dressing room and didn’t return for the rest of the game.
Cousins didn’t help himself with what came before and after the fight, flashing embarrassing gestures toward the Montreal bench — antics that only reinforced why Struble’s message needed to be sent in the first place. And by the time the two skated off, it was clear who’d had the last word.
Jayden Struble Teaches Old-School Lesson In Response to Preseason Cheap Shot
If hockey has a code, Struble didn’t just honor it — he enforced it. And for a Canadiens team still finding its identity, that kind of resolve matters. It shows that this young group won’t just build around talent like Demidov, but will protect it fiercely.
Call it old-school, call it payback, call it whatever you want. In Montreal, they just call it standing up for your own.
On Saturday night, Jayden Struble didn’t need to say much. His actions spoke plenty. Demidov got a word in as well, scoring a late goal to tie the game and send it to overtime, where Alex Newhook would give the Canadiens a 4-3 win.
And Nick Cousins? He found out exactly what happens when you test the patience of a team that refuses to be pushed around.
FAFO, indeed.
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