Late in the third period, Game Three turned into a sideshow. Pierre-Édouard Bellemare checked Dmitry Orlov from behind, shoving the Caps defenseman head first into the boards. The two teams brawled in the corner while Orlov lay on the ice, dazed.
Hall of Famer Jeremy Roenick called Bellemare’s hit disgusting and “totally inexcusable.” And if you thought that wasn’t bad enough, Radko Gudas tried to fight skill forward Andre Burakovsky during the chaos.
Here’s what went down. Burakovsky tried to rip Gudas off Evgeny Kuznetsov in the corner. As Gudas got turned around by Burakovsky, the Flyers defenseman threw off his gloves and started swinging blindly. Burakovsky kept his gloves on and ducked to protect himself. Though there was some pawing.
If Gudas would have looked and considered what he was doing, he would have realized that he, a veteran of 64 professional fights, was trying to fight a skinny forward, who one time got in a cute junior hockey league fight.
Despite Burakovsky saying he loves taking a hit and fake-fighting Tom Wilson at practice, he still can’t grow facial hair and is a generally non-violent Swedish person.
That’s the dude Gudas tried to beat up to send a message to the Caps. That’s the dude Gudas swung at to show his fans and his team that he still had pride.
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