Capitals HC Spencer Carbery makes his feelings known on Jalen Chatfield’s takedown of Connor McMichael

On Thursday, Washington Capitals coach Spencer Carbery addressed the controversy surrounding Carolina Hurricanes’ defenseman Jalen Chatfield and his takedown of Capitals player Connor McMichael last week during a media session after the Capitals' morning practice.

“If you’re asking me about the play, I don’t like it,” Carbery said I’ve been in my fair share of them, probably over 100. Probably way more than that. But when helmets are off, you just have to be careful.”

The incident occurred during the third period of the Capitals-Hurricanes game on Apr. 2. Chatfield grabbed McMichael while the latter tried to skate away, and the two dropped gloves and started throwing punches. While neither player managed to do much damage with their fists, Chatfield grabbed McMichael by the jersey and flipped him to the ice with a judo-style takedown, which saw the Capitals player’s head hit the ice hard.

McMichael seemed to be unhurt after the takedown. Both players received five-minute fighting majors and ten-minute game misconduct penalties. Their fight capped a tumultuous third period, which saw 120 penalty minutes awarded to players over seven minutes on the clock.

The Hurricanes won the game 5-1 on the night. Carbery said the Capitals were more interested in avenging the loss than the fights.

“I think it’ll be a highly competitive game, just based on the two teams and where we sit, divisional rival, the way last game went for us just overall. Nothing to do with the physical part of it. Last game leaves a bad taste in our mouth because of how the scoreboard looked, more so than anything else,” Carbery told reporters.

Carolina has won two of the three games against the Capitals this season so far, with Thursday marking the final game in their season series.

Both coaches had shared their views about Jalen Chatfield's actions

The NHL Department of Player Safety announced last week that no further disciplinary action would be taken against Chatfield. Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour blamed the media for hyping up the incident.

“The media was the one who made drama out of it,” Brind’Amour said. “And they’re morons, typically.”

However, Carbery expressed concerns about player safety.

“I feel like player safety becomes an issue and obviously guys are going to stick up for one another," Carbery said, speaking to reporters after the game.

Thursday’s game against the Canes will be the first time the Capitals play on home ice since left wing Alex Ovechkin broke the NHL all-time goal-scoring record on Sunday.