Well, that didn’t take long.
With bad feelings still simmering between the Rangers and Capitals after Tom Wilson’s misconduct in their previous meeting Monday, the teams brawled soon after taking the ice for Wednesday’s matchup at Madison Square Garden.
As the puck dropped to open Wednesday’s game, three fights immediately broke out among the players lined up in forward positions with the Rangers’ Phillip Di Giuseppe, Colin Blackwell and Kevin Rooney fighting Washington’s Garnet Hathaway, Carl Hagelin and Nic Dowd respectively.
A second skirmish began not long after play resumed with 19:10 remaining when Wilson took his first shift of the game. When the Rangers appeared to realize Wilson was on, Brendan Smith took a fairly direct path to the team’s No. 1 enemy and shoved Wilson toward the ice to begin a brawl. Both men were sent to the box, with Smith receiving an instigator penalty in addition to his fighting major.
A third tussle occurred with 15:46 on the clock when Anthony Bitetto took on Michael Raffi, while Ryan Strome faced Lars Eller, all receiving major penalties. In total, the teams racked up a combined 72 penalty minutes in less than five minutes of play. Wilson and Rooney were sent to the dressing room before the period could end, receiving 10-minute misconducts with 4:04 still to play.
The bad blood stemmed from the incident Monday in which Wilson brutalized a few Rangers, ending Artemi Panarin’s season in the process. Wilson received a $5,000 fine for his actions, a punishment some Rangers players and the organization voiced their displeasure with on Tuesday. That resentment clearly carried on to the ice and was expressed with action Wednesday at the Garden.
