If you expected the Washington Capitals and the New York Rangers to play a highly physical series during their first-round matchup, they proved your forecast right in Game 2.
It took both teams a game and a half, and there was no proper fight on the ice, but the tension was steadily raised when Capitals’ forward T.J. Oshie and Rangers winger Artemi Panarin clashed at different points during the game played on Tuesday, April 23.
The former was the one who got things started and the latter responded in retaliation, leading to a series of exchanges on and off the ice during and after Game 2, one that ended in a 4-3 victory for the Rangers (2-0 in the series).
In the second period, Capitals’ Oshie escaped punishment from the referees following an action that could have led to a high-sticking penalty as he hit Panarin in the face from behind.
The game went on without Oshie going to the penalty box and no other major altercations through the second period.
Later in the game, already in the third and final frame, Panarin dished out his revenge to Oshie by blasting him on the head with a shoulder, knocking him out of the game, and sending him to the locker helped by concussion spotters.
Panarin’s hit was reviewed by the referees on the ice but they couldn’t find a reason to call a major penalty on the Rangers forward.
Things Got Heated in Game 2 Between Capitals & Rangers
Although Oshie and Panarin put together a one-two sequence of hits on each other, one with the stick, the other with a shoulder to the head, none of them were punished by his action.
Instead, it was Capitals’ Connor McMichael who got tagged with a minor penalty for roughing as he chased Panarin following his hit on Oshie.
Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery told reporters after the game that he was confused by the calls on those actions, and other Washington players joined him in critiquing the way the referees have operated through the first two games of the series.
“They said it wasn’t a minor penalty,” Carbery told reporters after the game on April 23. “(It) was the only explanation I got. I asked a few follow-up questions with regards to leaving feet, point of contact, and the one thing that’s tricky is the spotter removed [Oshie].
“We watch a video at the beginning of the year of what they’re looking for for concussion symptoms or a hit and who needs to be removed. To me, when the spotter removes him, there has to be some kind of contact with the head.
“So that’s where I was a little bit confused on him being removed by the spotters and then no minor penalty on the ice.”
After reviewing Panarin’s play, however, the referees explained the hit saying “there was head contact on the play,” but adding that the head was “not main point of contact,” according to Scouting The Refs.
Capitals enforcer Tom Wilson, who has engaged in some off-ice, in-the-distance exchange with Rangers’ Matt Rempe, acknowledged he “didn’t see” Panarin’s no-call hit but discussed it after the game.
“It’s one of those things that looks like he’s going after him a little bit,” Wilson said, via Sammi Silber of The Hockey News. “Osh is in a vulnerable spot and he gets him high. I don’t know if he gets him in the head; I haven’t watched it.
“It’s one of those things where everybody stands up, you know. He definitely went after him. So that’s playoff hockey and you’re gonna get hit, you’re gonna give his. I think Osh is OK, so that’s the main thing.”
Wilson also thinks the officiating was focusing more on penalties related to stick hitting rather than physical, body-on-body actions.
“It seemed like tonight it was stick penalties. They were letting a lot of the other stuff go, but it was anything with the stick they were calling,” Wilson said, per Greg Wyshynski. “It’s tough. You get new refs every game, you don’t know what’s going to be called what’s not, but it’s playoff hockey.”
Rangers Acknowledge They Saw Physicality Coming
A few players on the Rangers side of the affair touched on Game 2 and the physicality shown by both teams in the second contest of their first-round matchup.
“It was ugly a lot of the time, Jacob Trouba told reporters in his postgame press conference on April 23. “Obviously there are some good plays out there that were made but, for the most part, it was mucky, chip it out, chip it in, and more of a grinding game.
“It seemed it had more of a playoff feel.”
Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette said he was envisioning the type of game that developed on the ice before the puck dropped for the first time on Tuesday evening.
“This morning somebody asked me what I expected and I said I expected that tonight,” Laviolette explained after the game. “The way it played out, physical and some attitude directed inside of the game
“I thought our guys responded pretty well. It was a hard-fought game.”
The Rangers defeated the Capitals 4-3 on their way to getting a 2-0 lead in the first-round series as the matchup goes to Washington for Game 3 and Game 4, scheduled for Friday (April 26) and Sunday (April 28).
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