The heat between the Washington Capitals and the New York Rangers was high after Monday night’s clash involving Tom Wilson.
The Two teams did not try to settle the score in their rematch on Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden. Rather, they picked up six fights in the game’s first five minutes.
As soon as the puck dropped, the Capitals’ player Garnet Hathaway, Nic Dowd, and Carl Hagelin tussled with Colin Blackwell, Phillip Di Giuseppe, and Kevin Rooney, their counterpart.
The next part of the fight was bigger than the main event as Ranger’s player Brendan Smith pounced on Tom Wilson during his first shift ever on the ice. Brendan was evaluated for 12 minutes’ investigator penalties as he was the first one to start the fight.
Later in the first half, Michael Raffl, Capital player, fought Ranger’s Anthony Bitetto after their faceoff. They all lined up again for dropping the puck, the Capital’s Lars Eller wrestled the Ranger’s, Ryan Strome.
It was a very funny scene in the penalty box, mostly for the Capitals as they were already entering the game shorthanded at forward.
Smith said that they were just trying to support their teammate on his behalf, and they think it was a good response for sure.
Before the first half, Wilson and Rooney were investigated for ten minutes of misconducted penalties. After the first half ended, they had 100 combined penalty minutes.
Moreover, in the second half, the Capitals announced due to an upper-body injury suffered by Wilson, he will have to miss the remaining of the game.
Wilson’s departure before the end of the game did not quell the bad feeling among the players. In the second half, the Rangers’ Pavel was given a 5-minute penalty and emitted for a cross-check to analyze the head of Capitals’ Anthony Mantha.
Furthermore, in the second half, Capitals’ defenseman Chara was also evaluated a 10-minute penalty for misconduct. This was when he reached the Ranger’s bench and conversed with Smith, sitting on the bench.
Strome, who was given a 10-minute misconduct penalty in the third half, called for a tripping penalty. The team suffered from a total of 141-minute penalty when the clock struck zero on the side of the Capitals’ 4-2 win.
On Tuesday, Rangers issued a scornful statement yanking the NGHL Department of player safety as they did not suspend Wilson. They went too far, said player safety head Parros was not fit to continue his present role.
In addition, to the above drama, the Rangers fired their general manager Jeff Gorton and the team president John Davidson earlier this Wednesday after they were banished from the playoff conflict Monday.
Both coaches were happy with their team’s responses during Wednesday’s violent game. The Capitals coach Peter added that he thought they played very well the entire night and did a good job staying in the discipline. On the other hand, the Ranger coach said when players play for each other, they act unselfishly and do things for other people.