Photo credit: Greg Fiume

Late in the third period, Washington Capitals defenseman Steve Oleksy took a naughty, naughty retaliatory slashing penalty. The Florida Panthers’ Tomas Fleischmann scored on the resulting power play, pushing the game to overtime. It was a bad play, and Oleksy should have known better.

But Oleksy showed remarkable restraint and dexterity a bit earlier when weird ol’ Krys Barch tried to challenge every Capitals player on the ice to a fight. Instead of dropping the gloves, Oleksy did Barch one better. Binky ducked a hit (a late, charging hit) and flipped the psychotic enforcer end-over-end.

GIF by welshhockeyfan

Barch then covered his face– either trying to goad the officials into calling a penalty or protecting the part of his body that just slammed into the ice. Not sure which. Actually. considering Barch went to the penalty box, ripped out a tooth, and pretended to throw it to some Caps fans, let’s go with the latter.

Weird night.