A fight between Penguins forward Arron Asham and Capitals forward Jay Beagle turned ugly in the third period. Asham took exception to a high hit by Beagle on Pittsburgh defenseman Kris Letang. He skated over and engaged the Caps’ fourth liner.
Beagle is 6-foot-3 and 218 pounds. And Asham is just 5-11 and 205 pounds. But Beagle has had all of seven fights in the NHL and AHL combined. Asham? 83. That’s not an even match. Once his right arm was loose, Asham unloaded two hard punches to Beagle’s face, dropping him to the ice. As Asham skated towards the penalty box he celebrated his win by making both the “fight’s over” gesture – similar to an incomplete pass signal in football – and a “sleep” gesture. All while Beagle bled profusely from his mouth as trainers rushed out to help.
Give Asham credit, though. He later apologized for his actions.
“I was into the game. It was uncalled for, classless on my part,” Asham said. “I think those guys over there know that I’m not the kind of guy to be going off. It was a big game and I wanted to get my bench going. But classless move on my part.”
In fact, the Caps do know that, for the most part. Mike Knuble was Asham’s teammate in Philadelphia during the 2008-09 season.
“I feel he’s a pretty honest player. And it kind of is what it is,” Knuble said. “You can argue for or against it. I personally played with [Asham] and feel he’s a real honest player and did what he had to do and caught Jay with a good one, but kind of even helped him down. He’s just doing what he had to do. It’s just one of those things that happens.”
Washington coach Bruce Boudreau and goalie Tomas Vokoun seemed to agree with that sentiment. Beagle drew praise from both for standing up for himself, but found himself in a difficult position. Defenseman Karl Alzner, Beagle’s good friend, was upset by Asham’s gestures, but also by the roaring crowd reaction. To be fair, I’m not sure it would have been all that different at Verizon Center. But Alzner was mad.
“It doesn’t surprise me. I’m not surprised by a lot of things that happened,” Alzner said. “Just some of the comments by their fans and stuff is just unbelievable. It’s classless. But I know that happens in fights. It’s really crappy to see. Have some class a little bit, you know?”
Added captain Alex Ovechkin:
“It’s a fight. It’s hockey game but again it was pretty tough,” Ovechkin said. “Beagle, like, he’s just first year NHL. Asham, I don’t know if he knows that or not, but just put him on the ice. He’s not a fighter, it’s not his job to fight. I don’t know, it looked kind of not respectful for players on different team. I don’t know what people think, but I think it’s not respectful.”
No update on Beagle, according to Boudreau. He did appear to briefly lose consciousness after dropping to the ice. Beagle, who did not return to the game, was not made available to the media afterwards. Boudreau said Beagle would be re-evaluated on Friday.
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