Fight

Saturday’s Fights

Photo courtesy Cheryl Nichols of Caps News Network.

A 7-2 victory? We expected that. But we didn’t expect five fights, all in the third period. D.J. King, who was brought in precisely for these type of situations, was a healthy scratch.

Here’s what happened:

David Clarkson vs. Jason Chimera

4:03 into the 3rd

This fight wasn’t that big of a surprise. Two guys who can drop the gloves square off.

Mike Green vs. Ilya Kovalchuk

15:43 into the 3rd

This was more a lesson in amateur tandem ice dancing than it was a fight. Regardless, two guys who shouldn’t be fighting were both overcome with emotion and dropped the gloves. No word on whether they agreed on rules beforehand, such as ‘spare the face.’

Matt Hendricks vs. Rod Pelley

15:47 into the 3rd

These two had fought in the past so let’s suppose there was unfinished business between them.

Matt Bradley vs. David Clarkson

15:49 into the third

I presumed that Bradley’s fight was the ‘peace-keeping fight’ – the fight, by fighters, meant to represent the end of the fighting for each team. Not so. The way the game was going, this was just another part of it. “We talked about it before the faceoff and the ref came in and told us there can’t be an instigator because the instigator will get fines for the coaches and suspensions,” Bradley said after the game. “We both agreed to do it and that’s just the way it was.”

Bradley got in a punch that knocked Clarkson down.

John Carlson vs. Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond

15:53 into the 3rd

This wasn’t really a fight because Carlson was only called for roughing, and a game misconduct. It was mentioned during the press conference that Letourneau-Leblond tried to coerce Marcus Johansson into a fight, but Johansson said no. Letourneau-Leblond went after him anyway, earning a slashing, instigator, fighting, and game misconduct as Carlson stepped up.

Honorable Mention

Bruce Boudreau vs. John MacLean

Boudreau got into a shouting match on the benches with MacLean.  “I was just mad. The guy went out there and he was going to grab the first guy he saw,” Boudreau said about the final fight.

Odd Moment of the Night

George McPhee winked at me. Then he laughed when I told him I had written about that.

Photo courtesy Cheryl Nichols of Caps News Network.

Ben Sumner

Ben Sumner is the editor of Capitals Outsider. He also works for The Washington Post and contributes there when he gets a scoop.

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