ARLINGTON, VA — The Washington Capitals will play on home ice Thursday for the first time since Alex Ovechkin’s 895th career goal, but there could be scores to settle.
Washington is set to play the Carolina Hurricanes eight days after a fiery game at Lenovo Center saw the two teams combine for multiple fights, eight misconduct penalties, and 142 total penalty minutes in a 5-1 loss for the Capitals. The most notable bout came between Connor McMichael and Jalen Chatfield with just over five minutes to go in the third period: though both combatants struggled to land a punch, Chatfield ended the fight by slamming McMichael to the ice for the takedown.
Despite the physicality of last week’s game, head coach Spencer Carbery doesn’t expect the extracurriculars to bleed over into Thursday night — though his team will look to take their revenge on the scoreboard.
“I don’t (expect any carryover),” he said after morning skate. “I think it’ll be a highly competitive game, just based on the two teams and where we sit, divisional rival, the way last game went for us just overall — nothing to do with the physical part of it. Last game leaves a bad taste in our mouth of a scoreboard look, more so than anything else. So I expect a highly competitive game from both sides.”
Carbery has plenty of experience dropping the gloves himself from his playing days, but he wasn’t a fan of how McMichael and Chatfield’s fight ended, highlighting the risk of injury during a helmetless takedown. McMichael ultimately landed on his upper back as he managed to avoid falling onto the ice head-first.
“I respect the fact that he’s defending his player,” Carbery said Wednesday. “I don’t have an issue with that. If you’re asking me about the play, I don’t like it. If you watch it in real time, if you watch it in slow-mo, if you watch it at any angle you want, the takedown portion of it, it’s a takedown, so you just have to be careful of takedowns in a fight.
“I’ve been in my fair share of them, probably over 100. Probably way more than that. But when helmets are off, you just have to be careful of — so it is two willing combatants and, yeah, that’s what I’ll say.”
Carolina head coach Rod Brind’Amour, in contrast, thought that the severity of the play was overblown.
“The media’s the one that (made drama out of) it, and they’re morons, typically,” he said Monday. “If you’re going to say what happened at the end is anything other than (what) I’ve seen a thousand times before, you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Both players received matching fighting majors and misconduct penalties after the play, and Chatfield did not face any supplemental discipline from the NHL Department of Player Safety.
Brind’Amour, like Carbery, didn’t expect much carryover on the ice Thursday night, particularly as both teams try to break recent skids. The Capitals have gone 3-4-1 since clinching a playoff spot and will look to refocus after Ovechkin made history on Sunday, while the Hurricanes have dropped three straight contests.
“I don’t really talk about it,” Brind’Amour said Thursday when asked about the rowdy end to last week’s game. “Guys understand. Boys will be boys. The game got out of hand a little bit. But our focus is really more on, OK, look, since that game we haven’t won…we’re looking to get back on track so we’re feeling good about our game starting next week.”
The Capitals will kick off their final five-game stretch of the regular season against the Hurricanes at 7:30.
