The New York Rangers were eliminated from playoff contention by the Washington Capitals. The game was marred by the antics of the five time suspended Tom Wilson. Halfway through the second period, Wilson dropped on top of Pavel Buchnevich during a crease scrum. He then proceeded to sucker punch him while he was down.
This prompted a melee to ensue once Ryan Strome went to go grab Wilson off his prone teammate. A scrum in the corner broke out and Artemi Panarin grabbed Wilson from behind as he was taking shots at Strome. From there the much larger Caps forward seemed to pull Panarin down hard by his hair. Fortunately, the helmet-less Panarin did not seem to hit his head on the ice. Wilson continued to rag doll him and then sit on top of Panarin before referees saw fit to break it up.
Tom Wilson earned 14 minutes in penalties which included a 10 minute misconduct. He was not kicked out of the game. Artemi Panarin did not return to finish the game with a lower-body injury.
Capitals deleted tweet was unsavory
Washington won the game 6-3 with none other than Tom Wilson getting the empty-netter. Then the Capitals social media account probably went a step too far with a tweet that seemed to revel in what should be a suspendible series of acts. After some sharp criticism, the Capitals deleted the tweet.
Mika Zibanejad was asked about the Wilson incident after the game. “I figured you should have some more respect for the game and for the players,” he said. “I don’t honestly know where to start. It’s just there’s zero respect. I don’t know why I’m surprised, just horrible.”
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