Brandon Duhaime stepped up for one of his teammates against the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night.
The high-energy winger sought out a fight with Hurricanes defenseman Jalen Chatfield after the latter got into a controversial bout with Caps forward Connor McMichael on April 2 at Carolina’s Lenovo Center. Duhaime approached the defender after a defensive-zone faceoff with 6:08 off the clock in the first period and dropped his gloves.
Chatfield obliged, and punches were thrown from there.
The end result was a decisive victory for Duhaime, earning revenge for McMichael and helping spark some life in Capital One Arena after the Capitals struggled out of the gates in the game. Chatfield likely expected he would need to get into his third career NHL fight on Thursday after how he took McMichael down eight days prior.
Chatfield and McMichael squared off during that fight in Carolina, and the fisticuffs ended when Chatfield grabbed hold of McMichael’s jersey to slam the helmetless Capitals forward to the ice.
While McMichael was not significantly injured by the takedown, Chatfield’s actions drew criticism from many leaguewide, including Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery.
“If you’re asking me about the play, I don’t like it,” Carbery said Thursday. “If you watch it in real time, if you watch it in slow-mo, if you watch it at any angle you want, the takedown portion of it, it’s a takedown, so you just have to be careful of takedowns in a fight.
“I’ve been in my fair share of [fights], probably over 100. Probably way more than that. But when helmets are off, you just have to be careful of — so it is two willing combatants and, yeah, that’s what I’ll say.”
Duhaime and Chatfield’s bout was the only instance of extracurricular rough stuff in the game between the two division rivals. The two seemingly had a cordial conversation in the penalty boxes after they earned their matching five-minute majors for fighting.
After going down 2-0 early to the Hurricanes, the Capitals fought back with four unanswered goals and eventually won the game 5-4 in a shootout.
For his part in standing up for McMichael and sparking his teammates, Duhaime was praised by Carbery in his postgame locker room speech.
“A couple key things, Dewey, first of all, stepping up and fighting,” Carbery said.
Before the second-year bench boss could finish his thought, Duhaime’s teammates greeted the recognition with a chorus of barking. Duhaime was then awarded the team’s gaudy gold chain as their chosen player of the game.
Caps captain Alex Ovechkin presented it to Duhaime as he was the last winner of the award, receiving it on April 4 when he tied Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goals record in a 5-3 win over the Chicago Blackhawks.
“Good job by everybody, but, Doggy,” Ovechkin said, using his nickname for Duhaime.
“I thought we laid it on the line tonight,” Duhaime said in his follow-up speech. “I think it might’ve earned ourselves straight to the bird tomorrow.”
While the Capitals didn’t exactly get the full day off on Friday that Duhaime imagined, they held just an optional practice before their flight to Columbus. The Caps will be up bright and early to take on the Blue Jackets in a 12:30 pm matchup on Saturday.
