As the Washington Capitals beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-1 in Game 5 on Wednesday, the first second-round matchup of the Stanley Cup playoffs is set.
The Capitals eliminated the Canadiens and will face the Carolina Hurricanes, which knocked out the New Jersey Devils in five games.
During the regular season, the Capitals and Hurricanes played each other twice in April, leading up to the playoffs. If those outings showed anything, these two clubs don’t like each other.
On April 2, the Canes beat the Caps 5-1 at the Lenovo Center, with two goals from Carolina rookie Jackson Blake. However, it wasn’t the goal-scoring or the high-flying skills that were highlighted from this contest, but the antics between whistles.
This game had a total of 142 penalty minutes between the teams, 74 for Washington and 68 for Carolina. There were eight misconducts from scrums after stoppages.
The bad blood didn’t stop there. At the end of a fight between Connor McMichael and Jalen Chatfield, Chatfield took down McMichael with what was argued as a slew-foot. Despite the arguments and debate across the hockey world, Chatfield didn’t receive any supplemental discipline.
MMA-Style Takedown In NHL Fight Could Have Ended Very BadlyEverything in Connor McMichael’s life is going wonderfully at the moment. At the age of 24, the Washington Capitals winger has established himself as a legitimate scoring power forward on one of the best teams in the NHL and has reached the 25-goal mark for the first time in his career.
Eight days later, these teams faced off again, this time at Washington’s Capital One Arena. The Capitals took down the Hurricanes in a shootout, 5-4. There weren’t nearly as many penalties, but it’s not to say it wasn’t a physical match.
Brandan Duhaime came to McMichael’s defense, fighting Chatfield in the first period.
The season series finished 2-2, with Carolina earning the extra point from the shootout. Now, these teams have another chance at beating each other in the second round.
Despite the Capitals and Hurricanes advancing in five games, it wasn’t as easy as it looked, especially for Washington. The young Canadiens refused to go down without a fight and put together some strong performances, even if they are the youngest team in the NHL, according to eliteprospects.com.
The Capitals had some spirited battles with the Canadiens, including heavy hits, warmup antics at center ice, fights on the bench and more moments.
“We knew that they were gonna play kind of cheap and try and get us off our game,” Wilson told reporters after beating the Canadiens. “So it got crazy at times. But that’s why hockey’s so fun, and that’s why we all love the sport and we love playing and love competing. So it was a heck of a physical series, but that’s what playoffs is all about.”
Washington should be ready for the battle Carolina will bring when their series begins.
Get the
latest news and trending stories by following The Hockey News on Google News and by
subscribing to The Hockey News newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below
the article on THN.com.
Read the full article here