The Capitals’ home opener on Saturday evening turned into Fight Night at Verizon Center. But the competitive portion of the contest had long since ended when the Caps and New Jersey Devils went toe-to-toe in the final five minutes of a 7-2 Washington victory.
First, defenseman Mike Green and Devils star forward Ilya Kovalchuk staged an unlikely bout with 4 minutes, 17 seconds remaining. It wasn’t pretty, but both players – who will earn a combined $11 million this season – appeared to escape unharmed and left the ice for the night.
Then things spun out of control. New Jersey forward Rod Pelley and Washington forward Matt Hendricks fought after the ensuing faceoff. At the very next drop of the puck, Matt Bradley used a stiff right to pull out a fight with Devils forward David Clarkson.
By now the coaching staffs were yelling at each other between the glass partition that separates the benches. But if Caps coach Bruce Boudreau was unhappy with three fights in a row he was incensed when New Jersey forward Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond jumped 20-year-old rookie Marcus Johansson on the next faceoff.
That started an all-out brawl as Washington’s players defended their young Swede, playing in just his second NHL game. Letourneau-Leblond earned penalties for fighting (five minutes), instigating (two minutes), slashing (two minutes) and a game misconduct (10 minutes) – 19 in all.
“We had the fewest majors in the league last year. We weren’t sending guys out to fight,” Boudreau said. “[Letourneau-Leblond] went out there and he was going to grab the first guy he saw. I thought it was great the way our team stood and protected each other. But, I mean, that was just dumb.”
And it could prove costly, too, for Letourneau-Leblond and his coach, John MacLean. A one-game suspension is automatic for an instigator penalty in the final five minutes of a game – though the NHL’s director of hockey operations could rescind the suspension after a review that includes context, including the score of the game or a player’s previous history. If the suspension is upheld then MacLean will be fined $10,000.
It made for a wild end to an entertaining game and should ensure an interesting battle when the two teams meet again on Nov. 22 in New Jersey. None of the fights was more surprising than Green and Kovalchuk, two skilled players who between them have nine fights in their entire NHL careers.
“I saw [Green and Kovalchuk] talking in back of the play and I said ‘They’re not going to go,’” said Caps forward Jason Chimera. “Then all of the sudden they both dropped the gloves. It’s part of the game…and when guys like that who don’t fight go it gets the bench pumped up.”
It was exactly the kind of rebound performance Washington (1-1) needed after a disappointing 4-2 loss at Atlanta in the season opener. They fell behind 1-0 just 109 seconds into the game and trailed 2-1 after the first period. But Tomas Fleischmann, Alex Ovechkin and Chimera all scored in the second period for the Caps. Ovechkin actually recorded two goals – the second on a penalty shot with 48 seconds left in the period. That made it 5-2 and put Washington in control entering the third period.
The Devils replaced Martin Brodeur in goal with Johan Hedberg. But it was his misplay that led to a Brooks Laich short-handed goal at 3:07 of the third period. Eric Fehr added a power-play goal at 10:27 – Washington’s first of the season.
“The difference was that last night was an embarrassing night for us and we just regrouped and watched video,” Ovechkin said. “Everybody played bad last night and tonight we moved our legs and finished our checks.”
