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The first punch Erik Gudbranson ever took was from a teammate in junior hockey.

Gudbranson was a strapping 16-year-old rookie on the Kingston Frontenacs. The Ontario league team’s heavyweight was a 19-year-old named Peter Stevens.

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“I asked him two weeks in, ‘I’m probably going to have to get into a fight, and can you show me a thing or two?’ ” Gudbranson told reporters Saturday after the Vancouver Canucks beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 in a shootout. “He says: ‘OK, take your helmet off, grab here, grab there.’ And he suckered me as hard as he could, and he said: ‘Learn how to take a punch.’

“That’s the first rule of fighting: you’re going to get hit, so be ready.”

Gudbranson was ready Saturday at Rogers Arena. The defenceman absorbed a couple of big punches from Toronto Maple Leaf heavyweight Matt Martin, but gave at least as good as he took when the players settled their score in the second period.