The Washington Capitols beat the Philadelphia Flyers 7-0 on Friday night. The Caps were skating all over the Flyers and Joel Ward completed his first hat trick of the season. However, all of this was overshadowed by a massive fight in the third period.
The Flyers are horrible this season, and their frustrations got the better of them. Only 5:31 into the third period, Flyers Wayne Simmonds dropped the gloves against Tom Wilson of the Caps. While they were fighting, Flyers goalie Ray Emery skated the length of the ice to challenge Caps goalie Braden Holtby. At first Holtby did not want anything to do with Emery, but Emery grabbed him and pushed him to the ice. Holtby had no choice but to defend himself. Here is the full video:
Emery dragged Holtby to the side and punched Holtby on the back of the neck. Three referees were finally able to drag Emery off of Holtby, but more fights started. Here is the box score with the penalties:
Despite giving up four goals and only appearing for about 23 minutes Emery was named the third star of the game. For some reason the the Philadelphia media thought it was okay to name a man a star after he skated the length of the ice, forced Holtby to fight against his will and beat him on the back of the neck while he was in a defenseless position.
Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak said it best:
Love hockey, but Flyers are part of reason it remains a niche sport. Shameful tonight (including Philly radio team.)
— Pat Sajak (@patsajak) November 2, 2013
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