Brandon Duhaime has once again stuck up for his teammate in a major way after a bad hit.
Late in the first period of Thursday’s game, Utah Mammoth forward Brandon Tanev boarded Matt Roy headfirst into the boards, woozying the Washington Capitals defenseman.
Both Tom Wilson and Trevor van Riemsdyk immediately engaged Tanev, but the ghost-seeing hockey player did not seem interested in answering the bell. Wilson even mimicked a turtle on his way to the penalty box to mock Tanev’s unwillingness to fight.
So in the second period, with the game tied 3-3, Duhaime stepped up and fought Tanev in a spirited Brandon vs Brandon bout right after a center-ice faceoff.
Brandon Duhaime fights Brandon Tanev
Duhaime’s fight fired up his Capitals teammates, who all filed off the bench during the TV timeout to give him fist bumps in the penalty box. Well, except for one player.
Capitals thank Duhaime in penalty box
“I mean, I love that stuff,” said Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery, a former enforcer himself, when asked if he’d ever seen that before in his career. “I’m a sucker for that stuff where guys have so much appreciation and so much love for their brother that just threw down for them and did that. There was one, Marty goes, Marty couldn’t make it over there. He was trying to save his legs. They go, ‘Marty, what are you doing? You’ve got to get over there.’ He’s like, ‘I’ve got to save my legs.’
“But it was, yeah, it was impressive to see. But that’s our group. It’s a brotherhood in there, and they love each other. And when they see stuff like that, they’re so proud of each other and want to congratulate them.”
Duhaime previously gained a massive amount of respect from his teammates earlier in the season after fighting the much-larger Jacob Trouba in the Capitals’ rematch against the Anaheim Ducks on January 6. Trouba had previously landed a blindside hit on Ryan Leonard, causing the Capitals rookie to miss several weeks with a shoulder injury.
“It’s unbelievable,” Leonard said of Duahime then. “It went without saying that you knew my teammate was going to step up for me. And that’s just the type of brotherhood we have in there. It doesn’t go unnoticed, and it means a lot.”
Carbery called Duhaime’s fight, as well as Dylan McIlrath’s against Ross Johnston that night, “the most important part of the game,” garnering a standing ovation from Capitals players for the pair inside the locker room.
Duhaime’s fight with Tanev marked the seventh time the Doggie’s dropped the glove this season. He’s also thrown hands with Jacob Melanson (SEA), Ilya Lyubushkin (DAL), Joel Edmundson (LAK), Brayden Schenn (STL), and Victor Mancini (VAN).
