Tom Wilson and Josh Anderson had the viral moment of the night on Friday after a disagreement at the end of the second period spilled onto a bench at Montreal’s Bell Centre.
The two power forwards wrestled and punched each other as NHL linesman Kyle Flemington held on for dear life trying to separate the pair. Wilson and Anderson careened hard into the dividing glass between the two benches before bouncing back the other way and eventually falling to the floor. Canadiens fans roared.
“It’s playoffs,” Josh Anderson said of the memorable moment after the Habs’ 6-3 win in Game 3. “Anything can happen.”
While the fracas may have occurred at the end of the second period in Game 3, the bad blood between the two teams had been simmering from the start of the series, with a total of six roughing minors in just the first period of Game 1. The teams combined for 75 hits in Game 1 and 65 hits in Game 2, including a large physical presence from Alex Ovechkin, and bickered in a seemingly endless series of after-whistle scrums that never quite boiled over into a fight.
Anderson, in particular, became something of a villain to the Capitals. Several of his plays in Game 1 left the Capitals calling for a penalty, and in Game 2, he knocked Wilson over during an otherwise peaceful stoppage, sparking another skirmish. Anderson earned two minor penalties for the altercation, but Wilson managed to earn an unsportsmanlike conduct call for his actions after the takedown.
Wilson and Anderson had already fought twice in the NHL and once in juniors, with their most recent bout to that point coming on October 31, 2024.
With tensions already high, Arber Xhekaj’s Game 3 series debut added even more fuel to the fire. Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis looked to counter Washington’s strategy of targeting the team’s young stars with hits, hoping the heavyweight enforcer could change the tenor of the series. While neither fleet of foot nor a big offensive contributor, Xhekaj brings a unique ruggedness to games and can make things miserable for opposing players on the ice.
“I think I just try and make everyone grow a few inches on our team,” Xhekaj said.
Xhekaj didn’t wait long to make his impact felt. During pre-game warmups, he skated out to center ice, where he exchanged words with an irritated Wilson.
That spiciness carried over to the actual game. Canadiens rookie forward Ivan Demidov, a skill player who had four postseason hits in his first two games, slew-footed Wilson after the Capitals’ alternate captain hit Jake Evans. Later, Mike Matheson and Christian Dvorak combined to knock Wilson over near the benches. The Habs outhit the Caps in the game overall, 45 to 26.
The main event of the evening broke out after Matheson tried to hit Caps rookie forward Ryan Leonard up high as he entered the Habs’ defensive zone and the buzzer sounded. Leonard spun out of the hit and didn’t engage. Anderson, however, took things one step too far, bumping Lars Eller as he skated by. Eller was not a fan of the encounter and turned around to scream at the Habs forward.
Players from both teams began congregating in the neutral zone, barking and pawing at each other as Habs fans went crazy over a goal announcement for Cole Caufield. Caufield’s tally, at 19:51 of the period, gave the Canadiens a 3-2 lead.
Brandon Duhaime and Anthony Beauvillier had an animated chat with David Savard. Wilson, meanwhile, made a beeline for Xhekaj and gave him a face wash. Anderson skated over and grabbed Wilson. The two began swinging at each other, the momentum carrying both onto the Capitals’ bench.
“I tried to get in there, but the refs were quick to grab me,” Xhekaj said.
The two combatants forced Spencer Carbery, a former minor-league enforcer himself, to take cover and push an errant stick away from hitting him in the groin. Meanwhile, Capitals equipment manager Brock Myles grabbed a broken stick to protect himself if worse came to worst.
“Well, I was on my way to walk across the ice, because you have to walk across at the Bell Centre (to get to the visitors’ locker room),” Carbery said of his experience. “So then I had to reverse my course and head back because there was two large individuals coming through the door that I was trying to exit.”
Gravity, fatigue, and a tackle by Flemington, the overwhelmed linesman, ended the melee with both players on top of each other on the damp bench floor.
“Things escalated, got out of control there,” Anderson said. “At the end of the day, you’re just trying to stick up for your teammates.”
Finally separated and alone at the bench, Wilson made a sarcastic crying face at the Habs while fans sang “Olé, Olé, Olé” at a deafening volume. The two teams then departed for their locker rooms for the second intermission.
Wilson and Anderson got matching minors for roughing and 10-minute misconducts. Eller and Xhekaj got matching minors for roughing as well. Saturday, the NHL fined Wilson and Anderson $5,000 each for unsportsmanlike conduct.
“I was just trying to do whatever I can honestly,” Anderson said. “I’ve been playing the same way since I came into this league. Obviously playoffs is a little bit of a different atmosphere. Try to do what you can to bring energy to the team, bring momentum to the team, and do your part out there.”
The chippiness of the game and the energy of the sold-out Bell Centre seemed to overwhelm the Capitals, who were in full control of the series before then.
“Obviously the building was real loud,” Connor McMichael said. “Emotions were high, but that’s something that we got to keep in check.”
Eller, nicknamed “the businessman” by Alex Ovechkin, was so furious when speaking to Monumental Sports Network’s Al Koken during the second intermission that he was bleeped several times by producers.
“It’s a lot of emotions, both sides,” Eller said. “I think we’re playing with a lot of physicality, whistle to whistle, there’s some bull[bleep] being started after the whistle, some dirty [bleep], so we’ll let the [bleep]ing refs sort it out.”
With some time to reflect, players from both teams had differing views of the Wilson-Anderson bench brawl when speaking to reporters in the locker room.
“That’s the craziest thing ever,” Xhekaj said. “I’ve never seen a fight on the bench like that.”
“It’s playoff hockey, you know,” countered Ovechkin, competing in his 20th NHL season. “It’s always battle. It’s always extra energy, extra hits. So, yeah, it’s normal.”
Normal or not, it sure was fun to watch.
