Immediately after the starting throw-in, the players of both teams started a massive brawl.
As a result of the incident, Nick Dowd, Karl Hagelin and Garnet Hathaway received five-minute penalties from Washington, while Kevin Rooney, Colin Blackwell and Phillip Di Giuseppe from Rangers.
a brawling opening puck drop pic.twitter.com/U1vmMz5hgC
- NBCSports Washington (@NBCSWashington) May 5, 2021
Then, as soon as Capitals forward Tom Wilson first appeared on the ice, he immediately faced Brendan Smith.
Wilson was unable to continue the fight.
In yesterday's match between these teams, Wilson first pounced on the Russian forward of rivals Pavel Buchnevich, and then knocked the owner's leader, Artemy Panarin, onto the ice.
Before the fall, the Russian hockey player lost his helmet and was injured, due to which he dropped out until the end of the season.
In total, six different battles were fought in the first 4 minutes 14 seconds of the game.
For the first time in NHL history, there were so many brawls in the opening five minutes of the match.
In total, the teams scored 100 penalty minutes in the first period: the Rangers - 56, and the Capitals - 44.
Earlier, Washington beat the Rangers in an NHL match, Orlov gave three assists.