The Bruins played the Capitals Sunday, which means -- you guessed it -- things got physical.
Tom Wilson’s hit to Brandon Carlo’s head back on March 5 -- a hit that earned Wilson a seven-game suspension and forced Carlo to miss nearly a month with a concussion -- ensured there would be bad blood between these teams for the rest of the season, and that certainly remained the case in Sunday’s 6-3 Boston win.
Wilson found himself at the center of another questionable hit Sunday. Early in the third period, he lined up Sean Kuraly as Kuraly circled into the slot and wound up hitting him in the head as Kuraly got tripped and fell to the ice after making a pass.
While the hit was late and unnecessary, it wasn’t exactly comparable to his hit on Carlo given how much Kuraly’s head level changed just as Wilson was about to hit him. There was no penalty on the play, but Bruins defenseman Jarred Tinordi got one for retaliating. The worst look for the refs on the play was that they somehow missed Kuraly getting hooked, slashed and tripped all in a matter of seconds just before the hit, which is why he was falling in the first place.
“I think the Wilson one on Kuraly, Kuraly was on his way down and Wilson was actually just prepared to hit him,” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said after the game. “I thought that one was one of those incidental… there’s not much you can do once a guy starts tumbling down. It looked like there was some stuff going on in the corner -- I think that’s what our bench was yelling about -- with a hold and a hook that might have led to him going down.”
A few minutes later, though, there was a no-doubt dirty hit from a Capital, this time Garnet Hathaway. Hathaway lined up Tinordi in the corner and drilled him directly in the back, sending Tinordi face-first into the boards. Tinordi came up bleeding quite a bit and did not return to the game.
It initially looked like the refs were not going to call a penalty on the play, which would have been insane, but they got together and eventually made the right call -- a five-minute major and game misconduct for boarding.
Cassidy understandably had more of a problem with that hit.
“The Hathaway one, it’s from behind,” Cassidy said. “It’s tough on Jarred. He comes out with some facial injuries. Hopefully he’s not concussed. At the end of the day, that’s boarding. Whether it’s five, two, however you look at it, that’s up to the refs.”
Cassidy also took issue with another hit earlier in the game, when Alex Ovechkin appeared to catch Charlie McAvoy up high with a hit behind the Bruins net.
“I think there was one earlier on McAvoy, at the end of the second, that was more sort of bothersome,” Cassidy said. “He’s up against the boards, made contact with the head. Those are the ones I always find… and there was one on [Steven] Kampfer, even, in the first period that was late. Those are the ones that bother you, when guys leave their feet.”
McAvoy and Kuraly were both able to continue playing and finish the game.
It’s clear that this is just how any game against the Capitals is going to be, and Cassidy and the Bruins are aware of that. They’re a team that finishes every hit they can, and they’re not afraid to step up to or even cross the line to do so.
“Anyway, physical with Washington again. Looks like that’s going to be the style of play,” Cassidy said. “Our guys just have to be prepared for it and we have to make sure we dish out our hits as well.”
It’s worth noting that the Bruins did also land a couple hits the Capitals might take issue with. Connor Clifton earned his second double-minor high-sticking penalty of the game with what was pretty much a crosscheck to Conor Sheary’s mouth.
Taylor Hall also knocked Washington defenseman Justin Schultz out of the game in the first period with a hit that involved some leg-on-leg contact, although it appeared to be inadvertent.
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