In the final moments of the Caps 4-1 win over the San Jose Sharks on Monday, Capitals defenseman Madison Bowey was the target of a dangerous slash by San Jose’s Brenden Dillon. The NHL’s Department of Player Safety has just announced Dillon will now be subject to a hearing.

San Jose’s Brenden Dillon will have a hearing tonight for slashing Washington’s Madison Bowey.

— NHL Player Safety (@NHLPlayerSafety) December 5, 2017

Dillon slashed Bowey with two hands after being pushed into the boards by the Capitals defenseman with only seconds remaining in the game. Bowey immediately started shaking his hand, obviously in pain.

Bowey, who tends to be fairly calm and collected, was clearly angry about the slash. He and Dillon engaged in a fracas following the strike, and Bowey appears to have directed some colorful language toward San Jose’s resident enforcer.

It seems doubtful that Dillon was as polite to Bowey in response as he was in a conversation he had following a fight last season against the Predators’ Austin Watson.

Bowey left the ice and didn’t return after the incident, but participated in practice this morning without any apparent impairment.

Bowey, however, is on the ice and looks to be full-go after taking a two-handed slash to the hand in the closing moments of last night’s game. #Caps

— Tarik El-Bashir (@TarikNBCS) December 5, 2017

On Tuesday morning, Bowey spoke to Elliot Segal of DC101’s Elliot in the Morning. In the lengthy interview, he revealed that X-rays taken after the game showed that his hand and wrist were not broken, saying “it’s definitely not as bad as it looked.”

“I think it’s just part of the game,” Bowey said of the hit. “I mean it’s not what you hope for going into it, but everything happened so quick, and obviously the way the score was at the time, they probably weren’t too happy with it, so it’s definitely something that happens. Everyone kind of makes mistakes, but it’s all good.”

Bowey also spoke about Joe Thornton’s late on TJ Oshie, which took Oshie out of the towards the end of the second period. Oshie is now listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

Bowey remarked that he thought that the San Jose forward probably could have stopped in time to avoid the hit, noting the “fine line in between” avoidable and unavoidable hits.

“I think that in that situation, especially being a veteran guy like Joe is, I think he probably knew he could have pulled off a little bit and eased up,” Bowey said. “He didn’t have to finish the check like he did.”

Still, Bowey did say that he respected that Thornton, who would usually leave fighting to players like Dillon, for dropping the gloves when prompted by Tom Wilson in response to the hit.

Interview

Elliot Segal: [The game against the Sharks] got a little chippy. I should ask, how’s your hand?

Madison Bowey: It’s all good. I’m taking it day by day, but it’s definitely not as bad as it looked. I think it’s just part of the game, everything happened so quick at the end there…

Elliot Segal: Part of the game?! A two-handed, turn-around slash across the top of the hand isn’t really part of the game.

Madison Bowey: Yeah, I mean it’s not what you hope for going into it, but everything happened so quick, and obviously the way the score was at the time, they probably weren’t too happy with it, so it’s definitely something that happens. Everyone kind of makes mistakes, but it’s all good.

Elliot Segal: I’m not expecting you to weigh in on whether or not he should get suspended or fined, the league will take care of that. But did you get X-rays afterwards to make sure that nothing was broken in there?

Madison Bowey: Yeah, I did. And nothing is broken, which is all good, which is definitely positive.

Elliot Segal: Any update on TJ Oshie after getting crunched by Thornton’s hip during the game?

Madison Bowey: I’m not too sure. Obviously that’s something that you’re lucky to get out of the game for sure. He’s in kind of a bottom position there, and his head kind of gets targeted. Obviously not a very pretty hit, but I’m not too sure how he’s doing.

Elliot Segal: On that play, he had gone in and went to deliver a hit against somebody on time and was down on his knees. Joe Thornton comes in, and Thornton’s been in the league for a long time and is a very good hockey player, and he came in and got his hip into Oshie’s head which was still there. It was towards the end of the period, the period ends. Does everybody look at that and go “he should have been able to stop, he should have been able to miss,” or does the game go that fast that he wouldn’t have been able to change direction or stop at that point?

Madison Bowey: That’s the thing. I think that the game does move really fast, and obviously it is tough to slow up or pull off, and obviously the tensions are high, adrenaline’s going, and you don’t really have time to react. But I think that in that situation, especially being a veteran guy like Joe is, I think he probably knew he could have pulled off a little bit and eased up and that he didn’t have to finish the check like he did. I think that there’s a fine line in between, and I think that sometimes the guys go a little overboard and could probably slow up a bit and lay off a bit.

Elliot Segal: You were on the ice when everything happened. [When Tom Wilson and Joe Thornton fought] did everybody kind of see it coming?

Madison Bowey: Yeah, I think they did. I think that it’s also kind of credit to Joe, I think he did something wrong and I think he knew it too. I think it’s good that he dropped ‘em with Willy, because obviously he’s not usually a fighter even though he’s a big guy. So it’s nice to see that he did that. It’s just kind of the gamesmanship of hockey. He kind of knew that he was in the wrong by doing that to one of our top players, so he knew that he had to fight Tom. Obviously Tom did a great job, and that was kind of a turning point, it secured our win there for the rest of the game.