Brayden Schenn Fights T.J. Oshie, Settles Bad Blood With Capitals

WASHINGTON - The moment the puck dropped Friday night, gloves simultaneously flung off the hands of Brayden Schenn and T.J. Oshie.

It was a prearranged bout to squash some built up rage over Schenn's behavior in Game 4.

Washington was none too happy with the Flyers' forward when he was seen cross-checking Capitals leading scorer Evgeny Kuznetsov from behind in the leg following a whistle.

"There's really no way to put it, but that's pretty cheap," Tom Wilson said Thursday, via CSNMidAtlantic. "You come in after a whistle and you target a guy's knee like that? There's really no time for that."

Washington head coach Barry Trotz said the Capitals sent the play to the league.

"I think that it's a dangerous play," he said. "I think it should not be in our game and any player who's looking to wreck a guy's knee or injure him, especially when the play is dead, that definitely should be out of the game. Every player on every team would tell you that's disrespectful."

So the Capitals didn't waste any time doing something about it.

"We were really unhappy with a play he made on [Kuznetsov] last game," Oshie said. "So it had to be done."

Why you?

"Why not?" Oshie responded.

Schenn, who admitted he was unhappy with himself about the cross-check, fully obliged.

"Obviously they didn't like the play I did in the last game, cross-checking," Schenn said at first intermission. "I didn't like it myself. I feel like I'm an honest player. If they ask me to fight, I'm going to step up and Oshie asked me the right way and I accepted his challenge."

Schenn connected on some big punches and looked to get the better of Oshie.

The fight started off Game 5 with a bang. Despite being outshot, 44-11, the Flyers somehow won, 2-0, to force a Game 6 and crawl within 3-2 of the Capitals in their best-of-seven first-round playoff series (see story).

After scoring a career-high 26 goals in the regular season, Schenn, 26, has made an impact this series by hitting everything that moves, racking up a team-high-tying 20 hits thus far.

The physicality is a dimension Schenn added to his game this season.

"He's playing his game. He's a power forward, he's playing hard, he's doing all things that you could ask out of a teammate," Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol said. "I think he's playing straight up, I think he's done it all series long.

"I know there was a question that was posed to him about a play from last game. I saw his comments and he met that head on. It's what he's doing. He's playing hard, meeting everything head on and he's been a real good player for us."

While the Capitals were upset following Game 4, the Flyers had reason to be agitated following some controversial hits in Game 5.

Hakstol touched on it postgame (see story).

Trotz wouldn't say much about it. He did, however, like the early rumble.

"Osh is an all-in guy. Obviously him and Schenn had a date or something because they started it off pretty quick," Trotz said. "But yeah, I love when your top players step up and say, ‘You know what, we're in.' And he did. I know everybody in the locker room, there's a lot of honor in that when a guy steps up for someone else."