The Washington Capitals advanced to the second round of the playoffs (where the Carolina Hurricanes await) after taking care of business at Capital One Arena and defeating the Montreal Canadiens in Game Five 4-1.
While the Caps took the series four games to one, the Canadiens never seemed overmatched by the Eastern Conference’s first seed. The two teams never backed down to each other, trading big hits and getting chippy with each other after the whistle.
The biggest rivalry that surfaced during the series was between Tom Wilson and Josh Anderson. The two power forwards tried to punish each other along the boards and make each others’ lives miserable.
Frustration bubbled over in Game 3 when the two players got in a bench brawl, throwing punches at each other as a lineman intervened. “Things escalated, got out of control there,” Anderson said then. “At the end of the day, you’re just trying to stick up for your teammates.”
After the final buzzer sounded in Game 5, the Capitals and Canadiens participated in the greatest tradition in hockey: the handshake line. Wilson and Anderson were all smiles when they reached other — a hard to fathom moment with emotions so high earlier in the series.
“[The series] was hard, I’ll tell you, firsthand for me,” Wilson said post-game. “I had a lot of stuff coming my way, and they were hitting and we were hitting and I enjoyed a really exciting series. Those two games in Montreal, I think we’ll remember, obviously. It was a crazy atmosphere. There was fighting on the bench. There was big hits. There was two teams just giving it their all.
“(Ovechkin) obviously leads the way in Game 1 and Game 2, just banging bodies, scoring, doing it all. I just try and to follow his lead. But think I gained a lot of respect for that team over there. You know, they’ve got a bright future, obviously. And they competed really hard and they got a bunch a warriors. So it was fun hockey and (we’ll) go get in the ice bath and we’ll get ready for the next one.”
Anderson and Wilson have battled each other throughout their careers, starting during their junior days in the OHL with the London Knights and Plymouth Whalers. The two have fought several times over the past decade-plus and as recently as earlier this season.
“You know what you’re going to get with him,” Wilson said earlier in the series. “He’s doing his job, and I got to be a little bit better at maybe turning away and playing hockey.”
“I’ve been playing the same way since I came into this league,” Anderson countered.
Wilson ultimately won the battle between the two players, notching five points (2g, 3a) in the five-game matchup. Wilson’s teammates credited his momentum-shifting hit on defenseman Alexandre Carrier in Game 4 as the moment that turned the tide of the series.
“Huge respect to that hockey team over there, starting with Carrier, obviously,” Wilson said. “He takes a big hit and he’s right back out there (in Game 5) battling. I think hockey players are tough, and they made it really hard on us.”
