The Washington Capitals will lose the services of two players for one to three games for Wednesday night’s melee near the end of the Caps-Atlanta game, which the Thrashers won 4-2.
In total, three players were suspended for violations of league rules involving incidents that occurred in the final two minutes of the game, when numerous fights broke out after, the Caps say, Atlanta players took cheap shots with the game already decided.
Those disciplined were:
• Caps left wing Donald Brashear, who received a three-game suspension and was fined a total of $8,241.26 for leaving the bench illegally and receiving an instigator penalty in the final five minutes.
• Caps center Brian Sutherby, a one-game suspension and a fine of one game’s pay — $2,197.81 — for receiving instigator penalty in final five minutes.
• Thrashers right wing Scott Mellanby, a one-game suspension, fined one day’s pay for receiving instigator penalty in the final five minutes of a game.
• Thrashers coach Bob Hartley, a $10,000 fine because of Mellanby’s penalty.
• Caps coach Glen Hanlon, a $30,000 fine because of the penalties to Brashear and Sutherby.
Colin Campbell, the NHL director of hockey operations, handed out the fines after holding a hearing by phone yesterday afternoon. Appeals are not permitted.
The Caps called up right wing Eric Fehr from Hershey for tonight’s home game against Toronto to take one of the spots vacated by the suspensions. Hanlon has other players available for the second vacancy.
The Caps had lost three straight to Atlanta this season but shot out to a 2-0 lead in the second period. But the Thrashers responded with three quick second-period goals and one in the third, setting the stage for a tense finish.
With about 90 seconds left in the game, Thrashers defenseman Andy Sutton ran Caps rookie defenseman Mike Green into the boards with his hands and stick high. It was, Caps players maintain, one of several similar incidents in the third period and it was the last straw.
Right wing Ben Clymer immediately took on Sutton, but that scrape at 18:38 was quickly broken up. Twenty seconds later, however, all 10 skaters on the ice were fighting, a scene repeated at 19:02 with remaining players, and again at 19:17 with the last bout on the card. Forty-one penalties were called resulting in 176 penalty minutes, seven ejections, five fines and three suspensions.
Brashear, an enforcer throughout his career, took on Vitaly Vishnevski, who had been running around trying to high-stick Caps players, and scored an easy TKO, spilling the defenseman’s blood all over the ice. This will be Brashear’s fourth suspension bringing his total of games lost to 10.
The Caps had hoped to convince the league that there was no reason for Sutherby to have received instigator or fighting penalties because his partner, left wing Brad Larsen, was an unwilling participant and did little more than turn away. Campbell saw it differently.
Washington players and staff feel they were goaded into the fights and acknowledge privately that they hope a message was sent to the other teams — the Caps will not go down meekly.
“At the end of the day these are the things that show your team will stick together and do the right thing,” Hanlon said. “We have the ability to protect ourselves,” he said, and indicated that would be the team mantra.
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