At long last, hockey is almost back! The Capitals begin the 2020 postseason on Aug. 3, nearly five months after the 2019-20 season was initially paused due to the coronavirus. That’s a long time ago. Let’s take a look back at the biggest stories of the 2019-20 season to refresh our memories before the Caps continue their quest for a second Stanley Cup.
Fighting is not as big a part of hockey as it once was, but the Capitals still boast a number of players who are not afraid to mix things up when the play turns physical.
According to Hockey Fights, Washington has had 17 fights in the 2019-20 season. Tom Wilson has been involved in five of them. Two of those fights actually came in the same game as he dropped the gloves twice against Philadelphia Flyers players Robert Hagg and Nate Thompson on March 4. Besides, that, the highlight was when he took on the 6-foot-9 Zdeno Chara in December.
Wilson and Chara drop the mitts pic.twitter.com/6ynyC7umGY
— NBC Sports Capitals (@NBCSCapitals) December 12, 2019
Brenden Dillon quickly endeared himself to his new teammates and to Caps fans as he showed his willingness to drop the gloves. He showed that in a tussle with Evgeni Malkin.
That's one way to win the hearts of Caps fans, Dillon pic.twitter.com/hxj6vIWnRL
— NBC Sports Capitals (@NBCSCapitals) February 23, 2020
For some reason, both players were given double-minors as opposed to fighting majors, but come on, it was a fight.
Garnet Hathaway has also had his fair share of scraps this season. He is credited with five. His best night as a Capital came back in October against the New York Rangers.
On Oct. 18, Hathaway suffered a broken nose in the second period. He returned for the third period, drew a cross-check, fought Brendan Smith (with a broken nose), the Caps scored on the resulting power play and Hathaway returned to score the empty-netter.
That’s one heck of a game.
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