The secondary story of Wednesday night is that the New York Rangers fell to the Washington Capitals by a score of 4-2.
The main story is the aftermath of the Tom Wilson incident from Monday night. If the NHL was hoping that nothing would happen after just fining Wilson for his actions Monday night, they were sadly mistaken.
The action started right from the face-off as Colin Blackwell, Phil Di Guiseppe, and Kevin Rooney all square off with the Capital’s starting forwards. Brendan Smith later took on Wilson when skated for his first shift. The sides combined for six fights and 72 penalty minutes just over four minutes into the heated contest.
Wilson did not return after the first period. The Capitals reported that Wilson had suffered an upper-body injury.
After all was said and done, both teams racked up 141 penalty minutes.
The New York Rangers fall in a penalty-filled game
Lost in all of the Wilson business is that the Capitals T.J. Oshie returned to play after the passing of his father. Oshie responded by getting a hat-trick in the contest.
Morgan Barron scored his first NHL goal to close the gap to 4-2 after Oshie’s empty netter. Alexis Lafreniere scored the Ranger’s first goal.
Probably due to the high level of emotions that came with this game, the Rangers took quite a few non-fighting penalties.
Pavel Buchnevich received a five-minute penalty and a game misconduct for a cross-check to the head of Anthony Mantha. This came in the second period after Buchnevich took a slashing penalty against Wilson and a high-sticking call against Zdeno Chara late in the first period.
Ryan Strome received a 10-minute misconduct penalty after taking a tripping call.
The Rangers go right back into action on Thursday night when they travel to Boston to take on the Bruins.