The Washington Capitals and Carolina Hurricanes combined for 142 penalty minutes in Wednesday’s game at Lenovo Center, with 122 minutes in the third period alone.
The matchup, which saw the Canes go on to win 5-1, devolved into chaos in the third period where eight different players received misconducts.
The most talked about moment afterward was the final seconds of a fight between Connor McMichael and Jalen Chatfield.
Following several major scrums earlier in the period, the two players dropped their gloves with 5:22 remaining in the game. McMichael finished a hit on Chatfield in the Capitals’ defensive zone, leading the Hurricanes defenseman to return fire by shoving the Capitals forward from behind in neutral ice. With emotions already high, the two players decided to dance and threw several punches at each other. The fight ulatimately ended when Chatfield spun McMichael around and slammed him to the ice. McMichael was not wearing a helmet at the time, having lost it earlier in the bout.
On social media, some hockey fans accused Chatfield of slewfooting, calling his judo throw “bush league”, “dangerous”, and deserving of suspension. In slow motion, Chatfield appeared to use his leg to trip McMichael and throw him to the ice.
NHL officials in the game did not weigh in on Chatfield’s finishing move, opting to give both players five minute fighting majors and 10 minute misconducts, dismissing them from the game. McMichael actually ended up getting the extra penalty, a two-minute minor for roughing.
When asked after the game if Chatfield’s behavior led Capitals players to retaliate, contributing to the chaos of the third period, Spencer Carbery did not express much concern, saying, “No, there was just a few plays before that. And, you know, player safety is a big thing, right? And guys are so good at policing each other on what’s dangerous and what’s not. There were a few just dangerous plays that start to get — you can feel the temperature raising.”
Wednesday’s bout was was the second fight of McMichael’s NHL career. He previously fought Ottawa’s Parker Kelly in 2022 when he was trying to stay in Peter Laviolette’s lineup.
