"Tom's a real valuable player for us, and he has been in very few altercations this year," says Caps coach Todd Reirden. "In the situation with the first [fight], he sees a questionable hit where a guy goes into the boards wrong and he comes to take care of his teammate. And then the next one, he gets forced into it a little bit. That was some of my discussions with the referees, that [the Flyers] are trying to get him off the ice by putting him in those situations.
"That's something we continue to work with. He hasn't had a problem with that all year, and he has obviously turned into a top end player for us, who is used in all situations. So that's the trade-off of him playing on the edge and taking care of his teammate. And yet the second one he was just forced into it, and I like to see it's not always him causing every problem."
Ochocientos For Oshie - Caps right wing T.J. Oshie played in the 800th game of his NHL career on Wednesday night against the Flyers. Drafted by the Blues with St. Louis' first-round pick (24th overall) in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, Oshie went directly from the campus of the U. of North Dakota to the Blues' lineup on Oct. 10, 2008. He skated 15:34 in his NHL debut that night, a 5-2 Blues win over Nashville in St. Louis.
"It's been a while," says Oshie, reflecting back on more than a decade in the league. "Back then I was a young kid right out of college, and I probably shouldn't have been living on my own. And now with a family with two kids and one on the way in a few weeks. It's been a fun, long journey from my time in St. Louis and definitely my time here. I'm looking forward to playing 800, another steppingstone to the big milestone, which is a thousand."