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The Washington Capitals road rematch against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday began exactly as many hockey fans expected it to — with a brawl.
In Monday night’s game in New York, Capitals winger Tom Wilson took a cheap shot to the back of Rangers’ Pavel Buchnevich’s head before body-slamming and injuring Artemi Panarin and starting a brawl near the crease. It was a violent moment that people have come to expect from Wilson, but rather than being suspended — and Wilson is all too familiar with lengthy suspensions — the NHL handed him a $5,000 fine.
And that didn’t sit too well with a lot of people, the Rangers included, and they blasted the NHL Department of Player Safety for not suspending Wilson.
And then the second the puck dropped for the teams’ rematch Wednesday, the gloves came off for an all-out line brawl.