TAMPA, Fla. — Together again. One final time.

Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry have been friends, teammates, linemates and now opponents since they were teenagers attempting to make an under-18 team for their native Canada. They take the ice together one final time Thursday, far from home but not far from each other’s thoughts.

Getzlaf plans to retire at season’s end, the last of his 17 Hall of Fame-worthy years with the Ducks. Perry has another season on his contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning, his third team since former Ducks general manager Bob Murray bought out his contract in the summer of 2019.

Getzlaf and Perry were standouts in Canadian junior-level hockey – Getzlaf with the Calgary Hitmen in the Western Hockey League and Perry with the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League – when they first bonded. Perry said it helped that they didn’t play against each other.

“I probably would have killed him,” Getzlaf said, breaking into a laugh.

Getzlaf and Perry were the same then as they are now as hockey players. Getzlaf was the extroverted playmaker who meshed easily with Perry, the quiet goal-scorer who played with an edge that rubbed opponents and opposing fans the wrong way for so many reasons.

They were teamed together for their first training camp with the Ducks, began to create magic and mayhem as rookies in 2005-06, ignited a Stanley Cup championship run one season later, combined for too many goals to count and became part of the community fabric in Orange County.

They also were Olympic gold medalists with Canada in 2010 and ’14.

“Right from the start,” Perry said of clicking with Getzlaf. “When you’re together so often, you just create the friendship, the bond. As time goes on, you just become friends. You can talk about anything. You can give each other heck. We’ve had our fights, but it’s for the best.

“That’s good. That’s the type of people we are. We just want to make each other better. They were brother-type fights. He didn’t like the play I did or I didn’t like the play he did. Those kinds of things. Get back to the bench and yell at each other and get ready for the next shift.”

Getzlaf, a center, estimated he and Perry, a right wing, played on the same line together for 85% of their time together. Dustin Penner played on the left wing for several seasons and Bobby Ryan joined them a few years later, followed by Pat Maroon, Perry’s teammate now in Tampa Bay.

“The chemistry was always there,” Getzlaf said.

Getzlaf and Perry earned the co-nickname of “The Twins.” Often it seemed they could read each other’s minds, never more so than on the winning goal of the “Comeback on Katella,” when the Ducks overcame a late 3-0 deficit to beat the Edmonton Oilers in Game 5 of their second-round series in 2017.

Getzlaf, stationed along the boards on the left wing, found Perry streaking toward the Oilers’ net for the winning goal in double overtime, sending the Honda Center crowd into a frenzy. Perry’s face lit up when asked Thursday about the pass, the goal and the most improbable of their victories together.

“That was a cool, special moment in franchise history,” Perry said. “The pass found me. I don’t know. He just turned around and knew where I was. I don’t think I yelled, but that’s him. He’s got eyes in the back of his head. I was the beneficiary of a lot of those. Maybe only a handful (could make that pass).”

Perry didn’t hesitate when asked what Getzlaf has meant to the Ducks.

“Everything,” he said.

Perry paused.

“On and off the ice, he’s done a lot of things for the community, winning a Stanley Cup, everything that he brings every day, the leadership, teaching the young kids, the mentorship,” he said. “He’s had a big influence on my career. He’s had an influence on a lot of guys.

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“He’s been the captain for, what? Ten or 12 years? (Actually, it’s been 12). He’s played 1,100 games. Scored over 1,000 points. The list goes on. You can talk about hockey. You can talk off the ice. You can talk about his leadership. He’s done a lot of things for that organization and that community.”

Getzlaf’s farewell game will be April 24 at Honda Center.