Photo credit: Paul Bereswill

Claude Giroux is one of the best and toughest players in the NHL. Last season, he had 93 points for the Flyers and then played beer pong two weeks after getting dual wrist surgery. It’s hard not to like him.

Capitals rookie defenseman Steve Oleksy is pretty tough customer too. Midway through the third period of Sunday’s game, as Giroux tried to glove the puck, Oleksy delivered a big, clean, open-ice hit on the Flyers captain.

GIF by welshhockeyfan

It was the epitome of a clean hit, but don’t tell that to the Flyers’ Jake Voracek.

After Giroux hit the ice, Voracek skated a beeline towards Oleksy with the fiery passion of a thousand burning suns.

Voracek bloodied Oleksy in the fight, as the latter had his jersey pulled over his head.

While Flyers fans raised to their feet to salute their young Czech for idiotically fighting a player after a clean hit, they got really mad when the Philadelphia announcer read out the penalties. That was pleasant.

Voracek received a five-minute major for fighting, a ten-minute misconduct, two-minutes for instigating, and two-minutes for instigating while wearing a face shield. I’ve never seen an instigator called in a Caps game, so excuse me while I go change my trousers.

Both Marcus Johansson and Alex Ovechkin scored on the resulting four-minute power play. Then they gave up their two-goal lead in the final ten minutes and loss in overtime 5-4.

Let’s give a stick tap to Steve Oleksy for making a great play on open ice. That bloody sacrifice should have been rewarded with a big win, but big wins are hard to come by this year.

Photo credit: Paul Bereswill