Washington Capitals: Top 10 best fights of all-time

Fighting is the best part of watching hockey and as Washington Capitals fans we have seen some great bouts over the years. What were the top fights of all time? There’s a lot to choose from as they enter their 47th season.

What were the best of the best from over four plus decades of hockey? It’s a tall task and I may miss some good ones. But that’s always the challenge in creating these lists. You can only narrow it down to 10 so I tried my best to include as many generations of fights as possible. Without further ado, let’s drop the gloves.

#10 Brenden Dillon vs. Evgeni Malkin

At the end of the first period in a contest between the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins, Brenden Dillon, who was just acquired at the trade deadline, showed his physical side quickly to the fans. After they hit each other a couple of times they were ready to go as the buzzer sounded.

Unfortunately Malkin didn’t go down to the ground but this bout by Dillon was a good first impression by him. Dillon got traded to the Winnipeg Jets over the offseason and if they don’t show this in the tribute video I’d be disappointed.

#9 Craig Berube vs. Eric Cairns

This is an older fight from the 1996-97 season. The date was Nov. 9, 1996 and it occurred in the in the first period at 2:38. This bout was a long one. They spun around for about 15 seconds before Craig Berube got off to a poor start. The best part of this fight was how he turned it around quickly.

Eric Cairns threw four right hooks, two of them went on the back of Berube’s head. Berube got going with a right hook, missing one while landing two. Both land shots at the same time but this time it was Berube who ultimately prevailed and it wasn’t even close.

This was a home contest at the old Capital Centre. Wayne Gretzky also happened to be playing in that game. Luc Robitalle gave the Rangers an early lead at 15:20 with a power play goal after all the fireworks.

In the second the Caps responded with two unanswered goals. Phil Housley tied it at 5:56 while Calle Johansson struck on the power play at 10:02. The Rangers tied it in the third period on a goal from Pat Flatley at 11:09. The Caps would win it in a thriller with 58 seconds left thanks to a goal from Todd Krygier.

#8 John Erskine vs. Michael Rupp

In the 2011 NHL Winter Classic at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, the rivalry between the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins took centerstage. Something crazy was bound to happen and sure enough when John Erskine chased the puck he was hit by two Penguins and he chose to fight Michael Rupp.

This fight was so crazy I even have a picture of it I have to frame. Erskine got two right hooks in before Rupp fired back. Then Erskine nearly fell down but picked himself back up in time to stay in the fight. Erskine got a few more punches in before the refs broke it up. It was an even fight and it made Alex Ovechkin go crazy on the bench. Both teams gave stick taps from the bench as the game went into a TV timeout.

The fight occurred when the game was scoreless with 8:08 left in the first period. In the second all the scoring happened, or most of it. Evgeni Malkin gave the Penguins an early 1-0 lead at 2:13. The Caps answered with two straight goals. The first was a power play goal from Mike Knuble then at 14:45 Eric Fehr doubled the lead. Fehr added his second goal of the game at 11:59 in the third period to give the Caps a 3-1 win over their bitter rivals but Erskine’s fight is what’s still tased about from this game.

#7 Caps vs. Flyers line brawl

The date was Nov. 1, 2013 and the setting was Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. The Washington Capitals and Philadelphia Flyers renewed their rivalry with an epic line brawl in the third period. You could tell the Flyers were pissed. The Caps came into a hostile territory and romped them with a 7-0 win.

At 17:28 Nicklas Backstrom scored to give the Caps an early 1-0 lead. The infamous Martin Erat and Nate Schmidt had the assists. In the second, the Caps continued to pile it on. Joel Ward scored and Jason Chimera added another.

Backstrom would later score his second goal of the game while Ward added another. Troy Brouwer struck on the power play and it was 6-0 thanks to five goals in the second period. In the third, Ward completed the hat trick with a power play goal before all the chaos started.

Tom Wilson would drop the gloves with Wayne Simmonds, Steve Olesky would go up against Vincent Lecavalier, Alexander Urbom would go at it with Brayden Schenn and even the goalies Braden Holtby and Ray Emery got involved.

The one matchup everyone still talks about is how both goalies got involved. It will go down in the history books as one of the best fights between the two rivals.

#6 Alex Ovechkin vs. Andrei Svechnikov

In Washington’s first round matchup against the Carolina Hurricanes in April of 2019, Andrei Svechnikov tried to go up against Alex Ovechkin. Big mistake and the great eight made it look too easy.

The Caps won Games 1 and 2 at Capital One Arena before the scene shifted to Raleigh, North Carolina. With the Hurricanes up 1-0 that’s when the incident happened. Unfortunately that was the only positive for the Caps as they dropped that game then proceeded to lose Game 4.

The Caps would win Game 5 before dropping Games 6 and 7. It would be their first of three straight first round defeats after winning the Stanley Cup. Whether we would like to admit it or not, a new rivalry is born between these two teams and games and fights like this one fueled it.

This was my favorite Alex Ovechkin fight for a variety of reasons. The first was because he stood up for himself. The second is he showed why he is the best in the league and that nobody should ever mess with the great eight.

This fight would’ve been ranked higher if the Caps had gone on to win this series. They didn’t so that’s why this fight is sort of in the middle of the pack.

#5 T.J. Oshie vs. Brayden Schenn

The Washington Capitals and Philadelphia Flyers renewed their playoff rivalry in 2016 in the first round. The Caps were up in the series three games to one and right before the opening face-off there was talk between T.J. Oshie and Brayden Schenn. Off the face-off the two dropped the gloves.

They fought at center ice. Each player throwing punch after punch and not a single ref in sight to stop it. Oshie chose to fight Schenn after he tripped Evgeny Kuznetsov in Game 4 of the series. The Caps had a 3-0 lead and the Flyers caught them off guard in both Games 4 and 5 before the Caps wrapped up the series in Game 6.

Doing this list, I felt like I had to include all the stars including Ovechkin, Oshie, and even Braden Holtby in that line brawl against the Flyers nearly three years prior. We’ve got more surprises for you in the remaining slides with some names you might or might not recognize. That is the best part about these lists, when you combine the past and the present all into one slideshow.

How are we doing so far? I think we’ve got even better fights coming.

#4 Donald Brashear vs. Danny Bois

This fight took place on Dec. 6, 2006 in a home game for the Washington Capitals against the Ottawa Senators. It was Alex Ovechkin’s second season in the league. With the Caps holding a 2-1 lead in the second period, the Caps were threatening and then things escalated.

“Danny Bois has picked a pretty tough customer in Donald Brashear,” you can hear the broadcast say.

This was a contest the Caps went on to win 6-2 with a variety of familiar names contributing to the scoresheet. Matt Bradley and Chris Clark scored in the first period. After the Senators got on the board in the second and the fight happened, the Caps answered with Clark’s second goal of the game.

The Send got one back in the third before the Caps closed it out with three unanswered goals. Two of them came on the power play from Alexander Semin and Matt Pettinger. Brooks Laich closed it out.

Before there was Tom Wilson there was Donald Brashear though Wilson is a tad better of a goal scorer. Imagine if Brashear was still on the Caps today as the team takes on the Rangers on opening night. That would add more fuel for sure.

#2 Tom Wilson vs. Braydon Coburn

Late in the first period with under five minutes left in Game 7 between the Washington Capitals and Tampa Bay Lightning, Tom Wilson and Braydon Coburn dropped the gloves at center ice. Moments earlier in the game at 1:02 Alex Ovechkin scored to give the Capitals an early 1-0 lead.

Wilson and Coburn initially got two minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct and after two minutes in the sin bin they each were staring at each other ready to go at it once their time was up. Wilson won this fight easily and it helped give the Caps a jolt as they wold go on to win 4-0.

Andre Burakovsky scored twice in the second period and in the third Nicklas Backstrom added an empty netter to punch the Caps ticket to the Stanley Cup Final. Many people talk about the goals while others talk about the fight Tom Wilson was in earlier in that game.

Wilson practically threw Coburn to the ice after the two exchanged punches. It was easily Wilson’s best fight of his career especially the scenario he and the Caps were in. That’s two things about Tom Wilson in a row. Wonder what number one could be?

#1 Line brawl vs. Rangers

There may be some recency bias here but everything surrounding that Washington Capitals contest against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden was worth the hype and more. After Tom Wilson hit Artemi Panarin, he only received a $5,000 fine and it infuriated the Rangers so much so that they issued a statement the next night calling out the league and calling the incident a “horrifying act of violence”.

Wilson not only hit Panarin but punches Pavel Buchnevich as well. It set the stage for an epic rematch on May 5 and you knew the Rangers were going to come out with fire. The problem for them was they chose violence and they chose wrongly as the Caps owned them both in the fights and on the scoreboard.

The game started off with a fight right off the face off draw involving the fourth line of Nic Dowd, Carl Hagelin, and Garnet Hathaway of the Caps and Colin Blackwell, Kevin Rooney, and Philip Di Giuseppe. 49 seconds later, Wilson dropped the gloves with Brendan Smith. There was a total of six fights in just the first five minutes of the game.

This fight is a prelude of what’s to come on opening night when the Caps and Rangers renew the rivalry.