#7 Woke up and chose violence
On May 3 things got heated between the Capitals and New York Rangers and it made the rivalry between the two clubs even more intense. The Caps though handled things cool, calm, and collected. The Rangers did not. They even went the length of blasting the NHL over a Tom Wilson hit.
In that May 3 contest at Madison Square Garden, Tom Wilson got in altercations with Rangers forwards Pavel Buchnevich and Artemi Panarin. He punched Buchnevich while throwing down Panarin WWE style. It was what the Rangers called in a statement calling out the NHL a “horrifying act of violence”.
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) May 4, 2021
Wilson got fined $5K. The Rangers got fined $250,000 for not only blasting the NHL but the head of the Department of Player Safety George Parros. Now that I think about it Caps fans will love me for including this memory. Caps haters and Rangers fans are going to come after me.
On the ice the Caps won 6-3 before the Rangers underwent an intense shakeup from the front office down. Nic Dowd, Conor Sheary, Garnet Hathaway, Daniel Sprong, and Nicklas Backstrom all scored. Everyone’s favorite, Wilson, ended it with the empty netter.
It all set the stage for an epic rematch two nights later.