Brandon Duhaime was fined $2,500 on Wednesday by the NHL’s Department of Player Safety for unsportsmanlike conduct.
After a closer look at the game tape from Tuesday’s Washington Capitals-Seattle Kraken game, Duhaime, while seated on the team’s bench, poked the butt-end of his stick out as Jacob Melanson skated by, striking the Seattle Kraken forward in the face during the second period.
Duhaime later chased the 22-year-old Melanson around the ice, and the two fought each other with 1:17 remaining in the Kraken’s 5-1 win.
While both players got matching majors for fighting, Duhaime was given an extra minor penalty for roughing, giving Seattle a power play to conclude the game. The fight, which Melanson appeared to win, was his first career bout in the NHL.
One might think that something happened prior in the game that made Duhaime so mad to target Melanson twice, but according to the rookie player, that was not the case.
“Yeah, I don’t know,” Melanson said to the Sound of Hockey on Wednesday. “I mean, if I got that guy that mad, I must be doing my job the right way. Obviously, he wanted it the whole night, and he finally got it, so.”
Melanson admitted in the interview that he wasn’t aware when the two dropped the gloves that Duhaime was the one who struck him in the face with his stick earlier in the night.
“I didn’t, and I feel like that might have made things a little different,” Melanson said, “but I mean it’s just part of the game. He’s trying to get under my skin, and I respect it.”
Ultimately, Melanson thought the fight was silly, considering when in the game it happened, but he felt that, with only 19 career NHL games under his belt, he wanted to illustrate to his teammates that he could handle the challenge. Prior to playing in the NHL, he had fought 11 times in the AHL and juniors. The fight for Duhaime was his sixth this season and the 55th of his career per Hockey Fights.
“Yeah, I mean obviously it’s 5-1 hockey game, one minute left,” Melanson said. “It’s not really the time to have a fight, but I mean, he wouldn’t back down. I try to skate away from it a few times, but I’m also not going to show that I’m just gonna skate away every time, and that I will answer the bell.
“I think it was there’s a time and a place to fighting, and I’m sure I’ll have a few more fights in my career,” he continued. “I feel like it’s just finding that time and space, but obviously right now, it’s just showing I’m gonna lay the body, I’m gonna play physical, get under your skin, but I’m also not gonna back down at the same time.”
Melanson, a Kraken fifth-round pick in the 2021 NHL Draft, has 4 points (1g, 3a) in 18 games this season. He scored his first career NHL goal on January 5 against the Calgary Flames.
