Washington Capitals All-Time Team: Enforcer
Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
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The Washington Capitals have always been a team that has embraced “enforcers”, and their fan base has always been one to support a good enforcer. I thought that it would be appropriate if the Washington Capitals All-Time Team would have an enforcer. While one could easily argue that Rod Langway, Scott Stevens, or even Dale Hunter (he of 1,000 career points AND 3,000 penalty minutes) could serve in that role, and one would probably be right. However, that’s not fun. I love my enforcers, so let’s have a true enforcer on the Capitals All-Time Team! Just imagine this person is the extra forward.
The candidates include a current CSN analyst, someone who proudly took boxing lessons from a famous boxer, a guy with arguably the best shootout move I’ve ever seen, and a second year player who has kicked enough butts that he already deserves to be a candidate. That would be Alan May, Donald Brashear, Matt Hendricks, and Tom Wilson.
Alan May
May was the Washington Capitals enforcer in the 80’s and 90’s. Not only is he an awesome hockey analyst, he was also very good at fighting and found a second home in the sin bin. In 345 games with the Capitals, May amassed an extremely impressive 1189 penalty minutes. That averages out to over 3 minutes per game. For those of you who don’t like math, he basically fought every other game. That’s pretty impressive.
Donald Brashear
It’s only appropriate that Brashear was involved in the most heavily penalized game in NHL history (and that the Flyers were one of the teams in said game). He only spent three seasons with the Washington Capitals, but he definitely made an impact (figuratively and literally) during his short tenure with the Capitals. In two of his three seasons, he averaged over two penalty minutes per game. Not as impressive as May’s numbers, but keep in mind that Brashear played with the Capitals from 2006 to 2009, and fighting back then certainly didn’t happen as often as it did back in the 80’s and 90’s, which were May’s playing days.
One of Brashear’s greatest fights came against nemesis Colton Orr. Those two fought regularly.
Matt Hendricks
Hendricks is probably known more for being “The Paralyzer” than anything, but Hendricks was definitely an enforcer for the Washington Capitals. In three seasons with the Capitals, Hendricks dropped the gloves 31 times. Hendricks was a unique enforcer- one who was not just good at fighting, but was also a fairly productive hockey player.
I was going to post a video of his fights, but let’s not kid ourselves, we love to watch Tim Thomas look out right foolish. Remember this?
Tom Wilson
Wilson had an impressive rookie season from an enforcer point of view. He fought 14 times in the 2013-2014 season, but after the first two months, it seemed like nobody wanted to fight him because players began to see what happens when you fight Wilson. This is what happens when you fight him, in case you were wondering.
The Verdict
Vote for your favorite enforcer! Voting will end on September 11th at 11:59 PM.