In the midst of a number of fights and dirty plays inspired by the thuggery of Tom Wilson two nights earlier, a hockey game at times broke out on Wednesday night between the Capitals and Rangers.
Angered by the league failing to suspend Wilson for hitting Pavel Buchnevich’s head into the ice and ending his teammate Artemi Panarin’s season with a bodyslam, the Rangers started a line brawl as soon as the puck dropped in the first period. Though no one wanted to take on Washington defenseman Zdeno Chara, Kevin Rooney battled Nic Dowd, Colin Blackwell fought Carl Hagelin and Phil Di Giuseppe took on Garnet Hathaway.
Then, with the penalty boxes already full, Brendan Smith went after Wilson when he took the ice about 40 seconds later.
That bout was followed up by Anthony Bitetto fighting Michael Raffl at 4:14 and Ryan Strome taking on Lars Eller.
In all, there were six fights in the opening 254 seconds of the game.
After getting a slashing minor in the first and then high-sticking Chara late in face, Buchnevich drew a major and a game misconduct for a dirty cross-check to Anthony Mantha’s face early in the second period. Though he was rightly upset with what happened on Monday night, what Buchnevich did to Mantha on Wednesday was debatably just as dirty.
Wilson, who also picked up a 10-minute misconduct for mixing it up with Kevin Rooney during a stoppage of play in the first period, left the game for good in the second with a lower-body injury. In all likelihood, Wilson was fine and the Capitals just wanted to get him off the ice to prevent the Rangers from continuing to take turns abusing him throughout the night.
Though the game resulted in a 4-2 loss for the Rangers, it was a moral victory for New York.
“It certainly speaks volumes to how these guys want to play for each other and how they care for each other in difficult circumstances,” said New York coach David Quinn. “When you play for each other and do things that are unselfish and do things for other people, there’s no better feeling in sports. I think that’s what overtook the room. It’s not about winning or losing the fights, it’s about creating unity and making sacrifices and being a team and I thought we certainly took a step forward today as an organization. I couldn’t be more proud of these guys.”
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